Nightfang Potter and the Elixir Stone
by Cody The Pikachu
Summary: Rescued from the neglect of his relatives, a young cat with a great destiny proves his worth at the Forest, School of Warriorism. Book/Movie X-Over. T for some language, blood, and violence. Complete!
1. The Cat Who Lived

**AvatarCat09: Hey there, everyone! Welcome to the Nightfang series! And welcome to Nightfang Potter and the Elixir Stone. I've tried to upload the first chapter of Nightfang, but Microsoft Word always canceled it out, but this time, it'll go differently.**

**Katara: And I'm here to help him out. Plus, the cats on here can get pregnant for nine moons like a human can instead of two moons. One more thing: The cats on here have the same last names as the humans on Harry Potter, except they use their last names less than usual.**

**Disclaimer: I own none. I don't even own a few cats on here because they were from a deleted story called Nightpaw and the Claw Sharpening Stone. If anyone has something to complain about my story, e-mail me sometime.**

**AvatarCat09: I've decided to skip the conversation of the Dursleys because they are the lamest and stupidest people on Harry Potter. And I usually don't say the word "lame."**

**AvatarCat09 and Katara: Enjoy!**

_..._

_The Cat Who Lived_

The house cats of the scientist Daniel Dursley were proud to say that they were perfectly normal house cats. They were the last cats in Alaska you would see that are involved in strange things because they thought that kind of stuff was too childish.

Bristle Dursley always went to work with Daniel to one of his scientist meetings. He was a big round bristle-furred gray tom with a squashed face and yellow eyes. Tulip Dursley, his mate, was also gray and flat-faced, but she was skinny and had large yellow eyes, which were useful when it came to spying on the other cats next door. And their kitten, Tubby, was fat, yellow-eyed, and gray also. In their opinion, there was no finer kitten that they could ask for.

They had everything that they could want, but they, in their own opinion again, had a terrible secret. And they feared that some cat or human will find it out. If someone found out about the cats of David Potter, they just couldn't bear to think about it.

Lilypelt was Tulip's sister, but they haven't met for years because Lilypelt became a wildcat. Because of that, Tulip always acted as if she were the only kitten in their litter because her sister and her no-good stray mate were as "unhousecattish" as any cat can be. They also thought that all cats should be rounded up and sent to all animal shelters and sent to homes in all the houses of America.

They also shuddered to think about what would happen if the Potter cats turned up at their street. They knew that those two strays had a kitten too, but this kitten was another reason why they were afraid, because they didn't want Tubby to mix with riffraff like that.

But after a long day of hearing strange things on the news, seeing a rabbit read a sign even though rabbits couldn't read, and whispers of "Nightkit", the Dursley cats went to bed, thinking that things will be perfectly normal again. But they were wrong.

_..._

Strolling down the dark Thunderpath was an old wild tomcat. He was a big cat with a flat face, a silver tabby pelt, and bright blue eyes; in other words, he was a Persian. He turned to look at the rabbit that was lying against the brick wall to the Dursleys' house, but instead of eating it, he just laughed to himself and stopped at the foot of the brick wall.

"I should've known," he murmured.

The rabbit must have heard him because it turned to him, its brown eyes looking sharp and some kind of black splotches on its eyes. But the silver Persian cat gave a meager chuckle at it and reached into a purple bag that hung over his shoulder.

In his paws was something that Twolegs use to light up bad-smelling ginger or white sticks, but he called it a "Put-Outer". The silver tabby tom flicked it open with his paw and rapped it over the top and at once, all the lights on the Thunderpath went out. The tom stopped at the sign, the house just behind some distance from the sign.

The rabbit came hopping over to him, and he murmured, "It is pleasant to see you here, Thistleheart."

But the rabbit wasn't there anymore; instead, a pale tabby she-cat was padding toward him with stiffness in her stride. Her green eyes were filled with surprise, and there were also some black splotches around those stern green eyes.

She meowed, "Silverstar, how'd you know I was that rabbit?"

"My dear Thistleheart, I've never seen a rabbit stand so rigid," Silverstar purred.

"Well, you'd be rigid if you stood right up against a wall all day long," Thistleheart retorted dryly.

Silverstar looked mildly surprised. He meowed, "You've been here when you could've been celebrating? I passed many banquets and parties before coming here."

Thistleheart snorted irritably and snapped, "Oh, I agree, Silverstar. We thought the warriors would be a little more careful, but they must have messed up somehow because the kittypets and Twolegs are noticing strange things. It was on their news," she added, thrashing her tail at the Dursleys' Twoleg nest.

She must have seen her leader nod, for she went on, "I've heard about what's been going on: flocks of owls and meteorites. They're not stupid because they'll find out later. I bet you a couple of mice that it was Tinystep who arranged for the meteors to come. Then again, he isn't all that smart."

"You can't really blame them, "Silverstar reassured her. "We haven't rejoiced for eleven years."

"I know , Silverstar. But they shouldn't lose their minds about it. Many cats are stupid about not disguising their scent and telling rumors and the kittypets will find out about us if You-Know-Who is really gone." She turned to look at Silverstar and meowed, "Are you sure that he's really gone?"

Silverstar nodded and meowed, "I suppose he is gone, and we should be grateful. Would you like some Meow Mix?" he added, pushing a can of kittypet food toward her. Seeing her confused stare, he added, "It's a kittypet food that I'm getting fond of."

Thistleheart nudged it back to him impatiently and meowed, "No, thank you. Anyways, even if You-Know-Who is really gone from this world..."

"Thistleheart," Silverstar interrupted his deputy while waving his paw at her. "I'm sure you could say his name since you are very intelligent. I am really tired of hearing this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense, for I have tried to tell cats to call him by his real name: Red Helmet." Thistleheart let out a hiss at the mention of the name, but Silverstar ignored that, continuing, "If we keep on saying 'You-Know-Who', it'll get confusing. I have never had a problem saying his real name."

"I know, but you're different," Thistleheart meowed, a mix of exasperation and admiration in her mew. "Many cats know that the only cat You-Know...okay, Red Helmet, was afraid of is you."

The silver tabby Persian nodded. "Thank you, Thistleheart. But it is because Red Helmet has powers I could never have."

"But it's because you're too...filled with justice to use them."

"I'm happy it is dark," Silverstar replied happily. "I don't think I blushed this much ever since Poppyleaf told me she liked my new cloak."

But Thistleheart gave him a stern glare and meowed, "I have heard rumors about how owls were delivering messages all over the state of Alaska, but it's nothing compared to what I've heard. They've been saying things about what had happened. About how that bear went away. And about what finally thwarted his plan."

It seemed that Thistleheart was near the thing most anxious to discuss, the real reason she was waiting on a cold hard wall all day. For neither as a rabbit nor as a cat did she fix Silverstar with such a penetrating stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she wouldn't believe it until he told her it was true. Silverstar, who was lapping up some cat food from the can, did not answer.

"And..." Thistleheart went on, looking astonished, "I've heard a rumor that Darkfire and Lilypelt have...have been...killed."

Silverstar nodded his head in silent confirmation, and Thistleheart gasped with sorrow.

"They're both...I can't believe it...I thought...Silverstar..." She couldn't finish this anymore and hung her head in sorrow.

Silverstar patted her on the shoulder and murmured, "I understand, my friend...I understand..."

Thistleheart's voice began to shake as she continued, "There's more: they've said that monster tried to kill their son, Nightkit, but he couldn't. No other cat knows why that happened, but they said this: when he couldn't kill the kit, Red Helmet's power somehow broke, and that's how he's gone."

Silverstar didn't reply, but he nodded glumly.

"So it's really true?" the pale tabby queen faltered. "After all the damage he did...all the cats and Twolegs he killed...and he couldn't kill a kitten? It's amazing...but how in the name of StarClan did Nightkit survive?"

"We may guess, but we will never know," came Silverstar's cryptic reply as he licked his leg and swiped it over his ear.

Thistleheart reached her front paw to her eyes and rubbed them good, trying to get rid of tears threatening to flow out. Silverstar sniffed a little and checked a watch that was attached to the center of his tail. He took it off and scrutinized the watch, which had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. To any cat or Twoleg, it made no sense at all; for Silverstar, though, it made perfect sense.

It made sense to him, for he tied it to his tail again and mewed to Thistleheart, "Looks like Badgerstripe is late. It was he who told you that I would come here."

His deputy nodded and replied, "Yes. He did. And I wanted to ask you this question: why are you here?"

"I'm bringing Nightkit to his kittypet relatives, for they are the only family he has now."

"Are you joking? You actually mean the kittypets who live here?" Thistleheart yelped, leaping to her paw and kinking her tail at the street sign. "Silverstar, you mustn't! Their Twoleg is okay, but I've seen these cats all day in my rabbit form, and you can't find two cats that are lower than they. They've got this kitten and I've seen him hitting his mother in the face, screeching for cat treats. I can't believe you're doing this!"

"It's the best and only place for him," Silverstar replied firmly. "His relatives will explain to him about everything when he gets older. And I've written them a letter."

"A letter?" Thistleheart repeated him, jumping onto the wall. "Silverstar, do you honestly think those kittypets would understand that letter? They'll never understand him! Never! He'll be a legend, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Nightkit day going on today. I know they'll write books about him, and every kit in the Warrior World will know his name!"

"Precisely," Silverstar mewed, looking at her seriously. "It would be enough to turn any cat's head to look at him. He'll be famous before he could learn to talk or walk, and he'll be famous for something he won't remember for a long time! He'll have to grow up away from our world until he is ready to understand."

Thistleheart opened her mouth, changed her mind, then meowed, "You're right, Silverstar." She eyed Silverstar's long pelt as if he were carrying the kit under there and added, "How's he getting here?"

Silverstar simply answered, "Badgerstripe will bring him here."

Thistleheart gaped at him and mewed, "Is it wise to put this task into someone's paws like Badgerstripe?"

"Yes. I would trust him with my life."

"Look, I'm not saying that his heart's twisted; I know he's a kind cat," the Forest deputy retorted reluctantly. "But he's not always careful! He can be prone to...did you hear that?"

Both cats looked toward the end of the Thunderpath as the noise grew louder, hoping that they would find the eyes of a monster coming with Nightkit in its belly. A loud roar echoed above them and they looked up...in time to see a huge motorcycle land in front of them.

Despite the motorcycle being big, it didn't compete with the cat riding it. He was the size of a leopard, and he was wider than any other cat. He looked like a really feral cat: short coarse black fur with two stripes running from his head to his tail, huge paws that could knock out a cat with one swipe, and very dark amber eyes. In his jaws, he was gently holding a bundle of white nest-pelts.

Silverstar padded to the big cat, dipped his head to him, and mewed with relief, "Greetings, Badgerstripe. I am happy to see you arrive on time. Where did you get the motorcycle?"

"I borrowed it from Padfoot, sir. Padfoot Black," Badgerstripe grunted deeply as he hopped down from the motorcycle and laid the bundle down to the ground. "And I got the kid, sir."

"Were there any problems?"

"Well, 'nother bear tried to eat him, but it got squarshed underneath the ruins." Badgerstripe shuffled his paws before going on, "Yeah, the Twoleg nest was almost' destroyed, but I got 'im out OK before any Twoleg got suspicious about what went on. When we went over the Kenai Peninsula, he fell asleep, cute little guy."

Silverstar and Thistleheart padded forward to crouch over the bundle before them. Inside the white blankets was a longhaired black kitten who was fast asleep. Right in the center of the extra fur on his forehead was a white lightning-shaped scar. It was a curious scar.

"Is that where...?" Thistleheart gasped.

Silverstar nodded. "He shall have that scar for the rest of his life."

The pale tabby mewed, "But...but can't you fix it or something?"

"Even if I can, I won't. Scars can be useful, like the one under my left front leg that is a perfect map of Juneau. Hand him over, please, Badgerstripe," Silverstar went on, stepping forward to the big black cat. "We should get this over with."

Badgerstripe padded forward, his dark amber eyes watering, as he rasped, "Can I...can I just say goodbye to him, please, sir?"

Silverstar nodded. Then, without another word, he bent his great big head down to Nightkit and licked him with a large tongue that could scoop him out of the blanket. With that done, he sat up and began wailing.

Immediately, Thistleheart clamped his jaws shut with her paw since she could hear dogs barking. She hissed, "Shut up, Badgerstripe, or the kittypets will hear you and wake up! You already got the dogs barking!"

"S-s-sorry 'bout that," Badgerstripe moaned as he rubbed his eyes with his giant paw and dropping his head. "I-I can't stand it. Both Darkfire an' Lilypelt gone...and poor tiny Nightkit gonna live with kittypets..."

"Yes, we know it's sad, and I feel it too, but get a grip before the Twolegs find us," the Forest deputy whispered to him as she laid her tail on his shoulder.

She nodded to Silverstar, and the great silver tabby picked the bundle of blankets up, turned to the Twoleg nest, and padded on over to the front door. He smoothly laid Nightkit down on the doorstep, took out a letter from his bag, laid it among the blankets, and padded back to the other two cats waiting for him. For a minute, the three wildcats stared at the kits sleeping in the blankets. Badgerstripe's muscles shook, Thistleheart blinked furiously, and Silverstar bowed his head in a humble manner.

"Well, that's that," Silverstar mewed, turning back to the other two wildcats. "We have no more business here, so we better get back to the celebrations."

Badgerstripe nodded and replied in a muffled voice, "Yeah. I better get the bike back ter Padfoot. G'night, Silverstar and Thistleheart."

As he wiped his eyes again, the black cat hopped onto the motorcycle and brought the engine to life. With a mighty roar, it lifted itself into the air and it sped off into the night sky.

Silverstar turned to the pale tabby she-cat, nodded, and told her, "I shall see you very soon, Thistleheart." Thistleheart nodded and groaned at the same time as a reply.

Then the silver Persian tom turned around and began padding back down the Thunderpath. Once he got to the corner, he stopped and he reached into the bag for his Put-Outer. He had to click it only once, and all the lights on the path came back on; in the orange light, he could see a pale-furred rabbit hopping away to the corner at the other end of the path. He could still see the white blankets on the step that contained Nightkit.

"Good luck, Nightkit," Silverstar murmured over his shoulder before turning around. And with the whirl of his silver pelt, he ended up disappearing on the spot.

**...**

A gust of wind ruffled the perfect hedges of the road, which lay silent and clean under the black sky, the very last place you would see something strange yet exciting. Nightkit circled around in his blankets while sleeping. He laid his small paw on the letter right beside him, but he slept on.

He didn't know he was special. He didn't know he was famous for defeating a demon bear, and he didn't know that he would be awakened in a few hours by the screech of Tulip Dursley as she opened the door to put milk bottles out onto the step, or the fact that he would spend the next few weeks being nipped and scratched by Tubby, his cousin.

He didn't know that at the moment, cats who would group together in secret over the world and Alaska were rising onto their haunches with their paws in the air and calling silently.

"To Nightkit, The Cat Who Lived!"

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat09: That took me several weeks to finish and I was planning to give my story to someone else, especially Jokegirl, who I asked if she wanted the story. I'll continue until I run out of ideas for this.**

**I wanna say a lot of thanks to Bramblefang-rulz, Linzerj, Jokegirl, Myrkin, ultima-owner, A Beautiful Oblivion, snowwhistle, and several friends of mine for reviewing the stories or giving me good advice and ideas.**

**Katara: So you guys get some virtual goodie-bags and a pat on the back. You deserve it! :)**

**AvatarCat11 and Katara: See ya next time!**


	2. The Disappearing Fence

**AvatarCat09: I know that it's been several moons since I updated Nightfang and the Elixir Stone. It's been so long since I updated this that I won't focus on other stories to update, except for Avatar Cat and Avatar Mystery Dungeon.**

**Francis: Greeting, AvatarCat09.**

**AvatarCat09: Same to you, Master Cat Detective!**

**Francis: (Gives him an odd look) I don't know how you refer to me as a detective, but I wanted to let you know that ultima-owner wants to say the disclaimer and the summary.**

**AvatarCat09: Thank you for this, Francis. Bring him in. (ultima-owner's dragon form comes in) You wanna say the disclaimer and the summary?**

**ultima-owner: Yeah!**

**Disclaimer: It'll take a very, very long time for AvatarCat09 to claim ownership to Harry Potter and Warrior Cats. (Coughs) Cough*never*cough.**

**Summary: Basically the same as the real Harry Potter chapter called The Vanishing Glass, but this'll be in cat version!**

**AvatarCat09: Thanks! (To readers) Remember, the cats here live as long as humans can, so don't get confused! Enjoy!**

**...**

_The Disappearing Cage_

It was around ten years after Daniel Dursley found little Snowy on the doorstep. But according to Bristle and Tulip, things didn't change at all except having a stray in the house. The sun rose on the identical neat front gardens and lit up the brass doorbell on the Dursleys' front door; it crawled into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when the shocking news came to the television.

But only the pictures on the shrunk have shown how much time really did pass. Over ten years, there was nothing but a fat gray fluff of fur with yellow eyes, but Tubby wasn't a kitten anymore. Now there were photographs showing a big fat cat with a squashed face climbing a scratcher, lying on Daniel's lap, wrestling with his father, and being cuddled and pampered by his mother.

So there wasn't really much proof that another cat lived in the house. But Snowy was still there and he was asleep in a cage in the corner of the entrance hall, but he wasn't asleep for long...

His Aunt Tulip was the one who woke him up that morning since she was awake, and her shrill yowl woke him up: "You! Get up! Now!"

Immediately, Snowy woke up, his heart hammering, and heard his aunt yowl at him again through the door of his covered cage. Everyone but he and Daniel spoke in a snobbish British accent; besides, they lived in Alaska, not Great Britain.

"I said for you to get up!" his aunt yowled again, her pawsteps padding away to the kitchen.

Snowy waited until she disappeared and he heard the clatter of pans on the stove and the smell of meat. At that, he rolled over onto his back and tried hard to savor the dream because it was a good one. There was a large motorcycle roaring at him and he saw something sitting on it and gazing at him through amber eyes, but he swore that he had the dream before.

But his aunt was back at the cage again. "Are you up _now_?" she snapped.

"I'm getting up already," Snowy mewed.

"Well, move it already," she commanded him. "I need for you to look after the sausages and bacon. Everything needs to look perfect for Tubsie's birthday."

Hearing this, Snowy swore under his breath, "Damn."

"What was that?" Tulip growled.

"Uh, nothing," Snowy managed to meow.

He couldn't believe that he forgot about his cousin's eleventh birthday. So he got up and stretched his fore legs out in front of him, yawned, and gobbled down a nearby spider climbing into his cage. He really liked spiders and they were delicious if there was nothing else to eat since he was living in a cage. After he was finished stretching, he pushed his cage door open and padded his way to the kitchen.

He couldn't help but stare at the table, since it was buried under loads of Tubby's presents. Tubby had gotten the portable food bowl that he wanted, not to mention the computer and the other television he wanted. Why Tubby had gotten a small trampoline was a great mystery since his cousin hated to exercise...except if he picked fights with other cats. His favorite target was Snowy, but he mostly didn't catch him.

Maybe it was due to living in the cage, but he was already skinny despite his tall figure. This was due to being half Maine Coon and half British Shorthair. He was smaller than Tubby and he couldn't fit entirely in Tubby's sweaters that Daniel knitted for him and Tubby was a big fat cat.

Despite his name, Snowy was a black cat with a narrow face, large paws, thick fur, and bright green eyes. He also had a scarred muzzle from when Tubby or his parents would scratch him for bad behavior. But the thing that he liked the most about himself was a scar on his head. It was a white lightning-shaped scar on the center of his forehead.

He had that scar as long as he could remember and he asked his aunt his first question ever: "When did I have this scar?"

"At the death of your parents after they were run over by a car," Tulip had meowed. Then she added snappishly, "And there are no questions allowed."

No questions allowed. Snowy knew that this was important in the house, but what about in the outside world?

When he padded into the kitchen, Daniel was sitting on the table, sipping what was called coffee and reading a newspaper. Bristle looked up from eating in his food bowl and barked as a greeting at his nephew, "Groom your fur, boy!"

"I will, sir." Every week, the spiky-furred tom would remind Snowy that he needed to get to the groomer's. His fur was the thickest out of all the other cats at his obedience school, but it didn't matter; his fur was naturally thick.

Giving a sigh, Snowy leaped onto the stove and started to work on the meat. Daniel had wanted to treat the black cat like his own child, but his other cats wouldn't let him while they were around. When he got to frying the eggs, Tubby waddled into the kitchen.

Tubby looked very much like his father, but he had different fur texture. His was fluffy with kitten-like fur while his father was bristle-haired. Tulip often said that Tubby looked like a baby angel, but Snowy begged to differ. He once said that he looked like a hippo wearing a tuxedo.

Carefully, Snowy lifted up several plates onto his head and carried them to the table, but he couldn't put them down since the whole table was covered. So he had no choice but to lay them down onto the spotless kitchen floor.

Meanwhile, Tubby had strolled over to his presents. He couldn't count farther than ten, so he asked Bristle, "How many are there?"

"Thirty-seven. I counted them myself," Bristle told him cheerfully.

"Thirty-seven? That's two less than last time!" Tubby wailed furiously, glaring at his parents.

Sensing that Tubby would completely blow his top off, Snowy crouched down by his own plate and chowed down on his cat food.

Tulip mewed to Tubby, "Sweetie, you didn't count Auntie Dolores' present. Look, it's under our present to you. That leaves thirty-eight."

Snowy rolled his eyes, but seeing Bristle glare at him for that, he got back to eating his breakfast. He also did that in case Tubby ripped through the table again.

Tulip probably seemed to see something bad happening because she added swiftly, "We'll get you two more presents when we go out today. What do you think, my little angel?"

Tubby sat down for a minute and began to think; Snowy knew that Tubby was a very dumb cat and thinking could be hard work. Finally, the fat gray cat mewed, "So I'll have thirty...uh, thirty..."

"Forty," Snowy muttered loudly.

He could see Bristle and Tulip glare at him for correcting their kitten, but Tubby then said, "Oh, all right, then. Forty."

While Daniel patted Tubby on the head, Bristle then chuckled, "The little guy wants his money, eh? Atta boy!"

_Atta pig, _Snowy retorted silently.

Suddenly, he heard the telephone ring and Daniel got up to answer it. After a few seconds, he called Tulip over to him while Bristle and Snowy, forced to do so, watched Tubby open his gifts: a DVD player of his own, his trampoline, a cat camera, thirteen new computer games, and a remote-controlled mouse.

A few more minutes passed before Tulip padded back to the other cats, meowing, "There's something bad, Bristle. Fig broke her front leg. She can't take him." At that she glared at Snowy as if it was _his_ fault.

Tubby gasped in horror, but Snowy felt relieved. Every time on Tubby's birthdays, Daniel would take Tubby and other friends of his to somewhere like a game area, a fast-food restaurant, or an amusement park. But he would drop Snowy off at the owner of Fig, a crazy gray tabby she-cat and a Devon Rex who lived two houses away. But Snowy hated it there, for the house smelled like onions and Fig would make him look at photos of her fellow pets: ferrets.

"Now what do we do?" Tulip asked her mate, glaring at Snowy again as if he had done this. The black cat knew that he should feel sorry for Fig since she was his elder, but after forced to see all the pictures of the ferrets, he found this very hard to do.

Bristle added, "Well, we could ask Dolores."

"No. She hates him," Tulip snapped. They often called him just plain "him" like he wasn't present...or something nasty like a dog laying a dump in the middle of the kitchen rug.

"What about your friend Clara?" Bristle tried again.

Tulip shook her head and retorted, "On vacation in Portugal."

"How about you just leave me here?" Snowy put in hopefully. He hoped that he could do many of the stuff that Daniel would allow him to do but the house cats wouldn't normally let him.

Unfortunately, Tulip and Bristle glared at him while Daniel gave him an interested look.

"You're going to mess the house up, are you?" Tulip growled.

Snowy protested, "No, I won't! I promise to not mess it up!" But they didn't listen to him. No one did.

Tulip went on meowing to Bristle, "We could get Daniel to take him to the zoo with us and leave him in the van."

"Are you mad?" Bristle retorted. "He's not sitting alone in it. Daniel just bought it!"

All of a sudden, Tubby began to bawl noisily. But Snowy could tell that his cousin wasn't really being sad; it was just an act and he couldn't remember when Tubby could wail like that. However, Snowy knew that if Tubby screwed his face up and started breathing like mad, Tulip would get him anything he wanted.

"Tubbykins, don't cry. Mommy won't let that stray ruin your day!" Tulip purred to her kitten before grooming the top of his head.

"I...don't...want...him...to...come!" Tubby shouted through phony sobs and Snowy gave a sigh. "He'll...spoil _everything!_" But at that, he turned away from his mother to give Snowy a nasty sneer at him. Snowy countered it by glaring at him right back and shaking his head.

Just then, the doorbell began to ring. "Oh my goodness, they're here!" Tulip meowed frantically.

She ran to the door and gave a cat call for Daniel to come and unlock the door. Their owner did and a Singapura cat named Jimmy, Tubby's best friend, was padding in next to his own mother. Jimmy was a small skinny cream-colored cat with eyes glittering like a rat's and he was usually the one who pins other cats down while Tubby scratches their faces. When he saw his friend, Tubby calmed down.

Before they left, Snowy was pulled aside from the van by Bristle, who was going to give him a sharp warning since they couldn't do anything else with him.

"I'm giving you a fair warning right now, child," he growled, shoving his face right into his nephew's. "Any funny business...any at all...and you'll stay in that cage and not have any meals for a week!" Any punishment was dealt with him being put in the cage despite Daniel wanting to use it as transportation or other animals that are sick or injured.

Snowy just nodded and muttered, "I promise that I won't do anything."

But Bristle just gave him an unbelieving snort and leaped onto the front passenger seat of the van next to Tulip. And Snowy had to squeeze in between Tubby and Jimmy in the back seat.

There was a strange thing: weird things would often happen with Snowy and it was useless to try and tell the Dursleys about this.

There was one time when Tulip grabbed Daniel's shaving razor and shaved him since she was tired of Snowy looking long-furred. She shaved the black cat completely bald except for a patch of fur on his head to hide the scar on his head. Poor Snowy had to endure an entire day of Tubby laughing at him hard and he slept a sleepless night of worrying about being laughed at by the obedience school cats. However, the next day, he found out that his fur had grown completely back and at the same length before. The bad thing was that he was to stay in the cage for a week despite him trying to explain.

Another thing that happened was that Tulip tried to get Snowy into a small cat sweater that once belonged to Tubby. She tried to fit it onto him the best she could, but it became smaller and it finally got to the size of a mouse, so it wouldn't fit him. Fortunately, he wasn't punished for this.

On the bad side, though, he got into awful trouble with Daniel for leaping onto the school roof and tearing off a cat's ear in a scrap. That was the only time Daniel was angry with him. It was revealed that Tubby's mob was chasing him throughout the school and he reacted by spinning around in circles and ripping off a cat's ear with his teeth. And suddenly, to everyone's shock, he found himself on top of the roof. As he yowled at his uncle and aunt through his cage door, he was saying that he didn't mean to do the stuff and he thought that the wind caused him to do it.

Hopefully today, Snowy was thinking, nothing will go wrong. He was even happy to ride between Tubby and Jimmy while Daniel would often scratch his cats behind their ears. Snowy was happy to not be at obedience school or at Fig's onion-scented house.

While Daniel drove on, Bristle began to complain to Tulip. Bristle's favorite hobby was complaining; his favorite things to complain about were humans at Daniel's office, Snowy, the government, Snowy, the Law, and Snowy were his favorite subjects.

This morning, however, it was motorcycles that he complained about. "Filthy, loud beasts," he growled when a motorcycle rode by Daniel's van.

"I had a dream about a flying motorcycle," Snowy spoke up.

Suddenly, Bristle whipped around from the front seat and yowled with his yellow eyes wide, "MOTORCYCLES CANNOT FLY, BOY!" The yowl made Daniel nearly crash into a pickup truck.

While Tubby and Jimmy laughed at him, Snowy protested, "I know that. It was only a dream."

Now he wished that he didn't say that, for the only thing that the Dursley cats hated more than questions was his chatting about anything behaving in a way it should not do, no matter if it was in a vision or even on television. They seemed to think he might get dodgy thoughts.

It was a bright Saturday morning at the zoo and without a cloud in the sky. Plus, there was the fact that many humans were at the zoo walking their dogs, but Daniel was the only human to bring cats into the zoo. Daniel bought Tubby and Jimmy large Frozen Paws treats at the entrance and, because Tulip and Bristle wanted to hurry him off, he bought Snowy a chewable tuna-flavored bone. It was quite better than spiders, Snowy thought, as he watched an orangutan doing its "business."

He guessed that the orangutan looked like Tubby almost, except that the human-like animal had orange fur and it was less ugly.

Snowy guessed that this was the best morning that he had for months. He enjoyed looking at all different kinds of animals, but he was careful to get away from Tubby and Jimmy, who would almost beat him up if they got bored with the animals. They ate at the pet part of the restaurant, where Tubby complained that his so-called "Glory-Hole" didn't have enough syrup on his sundae **(A/N: And NO, it's not the dirty kind!)**. Against Bristle and Tulip's wishes, Snowy was allowed to finish the first one.

Unfortunately, the happiness didn't last for too long...

After they had lunch, the Dursleys went to the reptile house, where Tubby and Jimmy wanted to see all kinds of poisonous vipers and man-eating crocodiles. Of course, there were all kinds of snakes slithering all over branches while lizards crawled into their lairs. Tubby found the snake with the oddest name: a Virginian wolf snake. It was covered in fur and it had its head tucked in its coils. It was asleep, although Snowy guessed that Tubby wanted it to move.

"Make it move," Tubby ordered his father.

Bristle did so with his front paw and called to the snake, "Go on. Move!"

But Tubby then began to bang on the door with his paws and yowled, "MOVE, stupid snake!"

"It's asleep!" Snowy snapped in defense of the snake. He didn't want the poor reptile to suffer deafness because of his own cousin.

While Bristle padded away while giving a suspicious glare at his nephew, Tubby gave up on the banging, muttered, "Boring," and stormed away.

When they were gone, Snowy leaped onto the railing of the fence and stared intensely at it. He found out that the Virginian wolf snake was a ground snake, capable of moving only on the ground and never happy in a tree.

He mewed to it with pity, "I wouldn't be surprised if you died of boredom, no company except humans banging their front paws on your glass day after day. It's worse than living in a cage, where my only visitor if Tulip banging on the door. At least I get to explore the entire house, thanks to Daniel."

Unexpectedly, the snake raised its head. It had a strange wolfish face filled with understanding as it winked at him.

"Can you hear me?" Snowy mewed.

The snake nodded, so Snowy checked to see if any humans were looking and then he gave a nod right back to the wolf snake. Then the furry reptile nodded its head to Bristle and Tubby, and then it gave the black tom a look that said _I know how you feel._

"Yeah, I know," Snowy replied. "It must be really annoying." The snake winked and nodded its head again.

Then Snowy meowed, "So is your kind from Virginia of the United States?" The snake nodded. "Well, was it nice there?" he asked it, but the snake pointed to a sign on the fence that said "This snake was bred in the zoo." Now he understood. "Oh. So you were never at Virginia?" The snake shook its head in a No this time.

Suddenly, a loud yowl echoed, "LOOK WHAT THE SNAKE'S DOING! COME LOOK AT IT!"

And Tubby waddled forward, shoving Snowy to the ground as he growled, "Out of my way, runt," and leaned onto the railing. The shove caught Snowy by surprise and he fell to the ground.

The next thing caught even him by surprise: Tubby was leaning onto the railing for one moment; the next, he had fallen into the habitat with a howl of terror and the railing disappeared.

The grand reptile was uncoiling itself in a hurry, slithering out onto the floor. People all the way through the reptile house shrieked and started running for the exits. As the snake slithered quickly past him, Snowy heard the snake whisper to him in a hissing voice, "Thanksss."

"Anytime," Snowy mewed back in a strange hissing sound.

As far as Snowy could remember, he saw the snake just nip people heels playfully (it wasn't a poisonous snake; it was a constrictor) as it slithered by. But when Daniel and all his cats were in the van, Tubby was telling his parents about how the snake almost squeezed him to death while Jimmy said that the snake almost injected its "poison" into his bloodstream.

The worst part came when Jimmy calmed down to add, "Snowy was there talking to the snake."

Bristle waited until they were at home and Jimmy went back home before grabbing Snowy painfully by the scruff before growling, "What did you do, you little freak?"

"I don't know," Snowy mewled. "I think it was magic."

"There's no such thing as magic!" Bristle hissed before tossing his nephew into the cage and locking it.

**...**

Snowy laid in his bed in the cage hours later, curled up in a miserable ball. He wasn't sure until the others were asleep and, until then, he couldn't unlock the cage on his own and steal food from the kitchen.

He had lived with the Dursleys for ten miserable years, all of them unhappy, as long as he could remember, but he did not remember his parents since they were run over by a car. Plus, he was the one who was pushed out of the way and he would often have visions of cats screeching and red lights coming at him. Snowy thought this was the crash, but he certainly didn't remember the red lights.

Also, that was how he got his scar. And why he didn't remember his parents: the Dursley had hid away all pictures of them and they never mentioned them. EVER.

When he was a young cat, Snowy dreamed and hoped that something amazing would happen to rescue him. But the Dursleys were the only family he had. But he saw (and kind of hoped) that some kind of stray in the street could rescue him. These were some very strange cats.

One time, a stumpy-legged brown-&-white tom had dipped his head to him while Daniel took him to the vet for a checkup (Snowy was an unneutered cat and Daniel had decided to leave him unneutered). While jokingly asking Snowy if he had made a friend, his owner scooped him away from the Munchkin cat. Another time, a tortoiseshell she-cat had waved her tail at him on the sidewalk while he was riding in the van. And another time, a gray tabby tom had once touched noses with him. Yet the weirdest thing of all was that they vanished into thin air when he tried to get a better look.

But at obedience school, Snowy had no friends. Every cat there knew that Tubby's mob hated that strange black cat with his thick fur and thin appearance and many cats had to agree with Tubby's mob. Nobody liked to disagree with them.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat09: Well, this is the second true chapter of the first book of the Nightfang legend. It took me around some time for me to finish this.**

**Chong: So school getting' you down?**

**AvatarCat09: Yeah.**

**Chong: Well, I got a song for that. You wanna hear it? (AvatarCat09 nods eagerly) Okay!**

**Don't let the school days get you down**

**Don't let the goofy kids turn your smile into a frown**

**When the paths are hardest, that's when you need a clown. Hey!**

**Don't let the school days get you down, AvatarCat09!**

**How's that?**

**AvatarCat09: You really need to come to the party of the Paws Club! They'll love you!**

**Anyways, let's get on with the preparation for the next chapter, since we all know what it's gonna be about. And remember to review!**

**See ya next time!**


	3. Mail From No Cat

**AvatarCat09: Since I'm writing the entire series of the Nightfang series, I decided to hire three people to help Katara and me with this story. Here are Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger! (All three step out into the office) It's an honor to meet you three! So how the heck have you three been?**

**Harry: We're doing fine, and it's an honor to meet you too. We've never felt better since Voldemort's...**

**Ron: Will you stop saying the...oh, never mind. He's dead now, so he's not taboo anymore!**

**AvatarCat09: That's the spirit. You know what Dumbledore said: Fear of a name increases the fear of the object. I really miss that guy being the headmaster of Hogwarts.**

**Katara: I know. Anyways, would anyone like to say the disclaimer?**

**Hermione: I would. (Ron pats her on the shoulder and Hermione speaks with confidence) AvatarCat09 doesn't own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats. They belong to J.K. Rowling and Erin Hunter.**

**AvatarCat09: Thanks, Hermy! (Hermione gives him a hard look while Katara looks at him with confusion) What? Grawp says it!**

**Anyways, sit back, get a snack and drink, and enjoy! (He, Katara, Harry, Ron and Hermione sit in armchairs to the screen with snacks and drinks. And they're not alcoholic!)**

**...**

_Mail From No Cats_

Snowy believed that the escape of the Virginian Wolf Snake was the most awful punishment that he had ever had, even though Daniel didn't blame him at all. He blamed it on the humans who built the fence weakly. When Snowy was released from the cage, he discovered that the summer holidays had begun and Tubby had already busted a hole through the trampoline, he broke his camera, and he knocked Fig over with his preset mouse while she limped down the street with a cast on her back leg.

Now Snowy was pleased that school was over for the summer, but since Tubby's mob always came to their house every single day, there was no escaping them. Jimmy, Pete, Sheldon, and Ahab were all large and overweight and thick cats, but since Tubby was their leader, he was the largest and plumpest and stupidest of them all. And they were more than happy than to play the only sport they loved: Snowy Scavenging.

It was for that reason that Snowy had been roaming around the streets to stay out of the house because he needed time to think about a seed of hope growing inside him. He was going to a public school called Rockington Obedience School and, for the first time, he wouldn't be with Tubby and Jimmy, for they were going to Meltings Private School, where Uncle Bristle once went to.

Tubby thought that going to Meltings was comical. He had told Snowy, "On the first day there, they stick your head in the toilet and make you slurp the water in there like a dog. You wanna try it?"

"No way," Snowy hissed, making a face. "That innocent toilet doesn't want anything as sickening as your head in there anymore. It's gonna get sick." Before Tubby could figure out what it meant, the black cat turned tail and ran out of the bathroom.

One day, in the month of July, Daniel, Uncle Bristle, and Aunt Tulip took Tubby to Juneau to get his supplies for Meltings while they left Snowy behind at Fig's house. This time, this stay wasn't as bad as it once was. Since Fig had broken her leg since a ferret played too forcefully, she didn't like them as much as she once did. She let Snowy walk around the garden, watch T.V., and let him have an occasional cat treat, even though it tasted very old.

In that same evening, Tubby marched around the living room in his new Meltings cat sweater. The sweaters were orange and blue, the caps were orange and blue also, and they carried a club used for hitting others when the instructors weren't looking. They said that this was used for later training and obedience in life.

Daniel just gave a nod to him before going into the kitchen to fix some dinner for his cats, Bristle brusquely meowed that this was the proudest night he had, and Tulip wailed that her 'handsome' **(Author's Note: Cough*ugly*cough)** little Tubbykins had finally grown up. However, Snowy walked away where they couldn't see him and he began laughing so loudly that he thought he could feel his chest ache.

**...**

When Snowy padded into the kitchen the next morning, there was a horrible smell coming from the kitchen sink. To get a clue for what it could be, he leaped onto the counter and looked in the sink to see what it was. It was revealed to be some kind of dirty rags floating in a metal tub in the sink.

So he asked Tulip, who was eating her cat food, "What's this?"

Tulip's nostril's flared with irritation and they always did that when he dared ask a question. "It's your new obedience school sweater."

Snowy looked in the tub again. "Oh, I didn't know that it was going to be _so _wet," he meowed sarcastically.

"Don't be childish," Tulip snapped. "Daniel's just dyeing some old sweaters of Tubby's for you. It's going to look like everyone else's when they finish soaking."

But Snowy had a doubt about that, but it was best to not argue about it. He sat down beside his food bowl and concentrated to not think about his first day of school, for he thought that he would be wearing gorilla fur to school.

Uncle Bristle and Tubby walked into the kitchen and wrinkled their raised noses at the smell of the sweaters; Daniel had come in and started making breakfast for his cats. While Bristle looked in the newspaper as Daniel read the news, Tubby started banging the floor with his Meltings club since he carried it everywhere. Then all the cats heard the mail truck arrive as the mailman put the mail in the mailbox.

"Get the mail, Tubby," Bristle meowed.

"Make Snowy get it," Tubby complained.

"Get the mail, Snowy," Bristle meowed.

"Make Tubby get it," Snowy complained.

"Beat him with your club, Tubby," Bristle meowed.

Tubby dashed forward with the club, but it was thanks to Daniel holding him back that Snowy got away and dashed out the front door. He padded to the mailbox, opened it, took the mail with his mouth, and went back inside. He got to the front door and sorted through the mail: there was a postcard from Bristle's sister visiting Mexico, a bill for Daniel, and..._a letter for Snowy._

Snowy scooped it out with his paw and stared down at it, his heart hammering like a woodpecker pecking at wood. No one had ever written to him for in his whole life. He didn't have any friends or any other relatives and he didn't get it from the neighborhood library. Yet here was the letter and he saw it was written in emerald ink:

_Mr. Snowy Potter_

_The Cage In The Closet_

_Number 6 Evergreen Ave._

_Wrangell, Alaska_

The envelope was a bright sapphire and there wasn't any stamp, but Snowy saw that, as he flipped the letter over and trembling, there was a violet wax stamp that bore a coat of arms. The coat of arms was a lion, a badger, a raven, and a snake that were surrounding a huge letter F.

Bristle yelled from the kitchen, "Hurry up, boy! What are you doing, checking for terrorist bombs?" He chuckled at his joke.

_Ha ha ha. That's SO funny, _Snowy thought sarcastically as he padded to the kitchen, the mail in his jaws. He handed the bill to Daniel and the letter from Dolores to Bristle before padding off to read his letter.

Daniel opened the bill, groaned, and then tossed it aside. Bristle, meanwhile, read the postcard and meowed to Tulip, "Looks like Dolores is sick, Tulip, dear. She must've eaten some funny taco or something..."

"Daddy!" Tubby howled all of a sudden. "Snowy got something!"

Snowy was just going to read the same paper that the envelope had when Tubby unexpectedly snatched it from under his paws and gave it to his father.

"Hey, give that back! It's mine!" Snowy snarled, dashing forward.

However, Bristle just sneered, "To you? Who on Earth would want to write to you this badly?" and shook the letter open with one paw and glanced at it. His face went from red to green faster than a chameleon and it didn't stop there. In just a few seconds, it was the grayish blue of rotten blue cottage cheese.

"T-T-T-Tulip!" he howled.

Tubby then tried to pry the letter from his father's paw so that he could read it, but Bristle's paw was planted very hard onto the letter. Tulip peered oddly over her mate's shoulder to read it, but then she looked as if she were going to faint. She made a choking noise as she mewled, "Oh my goodness! Bristle!"

Daniel looked up from the newspaper and gave his cats a confused look; he wasn't the one who forgot that Snowy and Tubby were in the kitchen too. Since Tubby wasn't used to being unnoticed and always wanting the attention, he kept hitting Bristle's head with his Meltings club. "I wanna read it!" he whined.

"It's mine, so _I _should be the one to read it!" Snowy growled crossly. Why wouldn't they let him read his letter?

"Be quiet and get out, both of you," Bristle rasped as he stuffed the letter back into its envelope.

Snowy didn't move; instead, he yowled noisily, "I. WANT. TO. READ. MY. LETTER."

"Let me see it!" Tubby hissed.

But Bristle shoved both kittens out of the kitchen while howling "OUT!" and closing the door behind him. Then Snowy and Tubby began to have a mad yet soundless fight and Tubby would have won if it hadn't been for Daniel coming into the hall and separating the two young cats. So Snowy got to eavesdrop through the keyhole while Tubby had to lie on the floor to listen under the crack of the door.

"Bristle," Tulip was whimpering to Bristle, "look at where we live. How could those heathens find out where he lives? Are they spying on us?"

_Heathens?_

"Watching and spying are the same thing! They could have us followed," Bristle muttered.

Tulip mewled with the same whimper, "What do we do? Should we write back to them? We can tell them..."

Snowy peeked through the keyhole and saw his uncle prowling around the table and muttering to himself irritably. Then the Persian-faced British Shorthair meowed before long, "No, we'll pay no heed to it. Yes, it'd be best if they don't get the answer. We won't do anything."

"But Bristle..."

"No, Tulip!" Bristle growled. "There shouldn't be any in this house! We swore that we'd stomp it out of him when he was abandoned!"

**...**

That evening after he came back from Daniel's workplace, Bristle had visited Snowy in his cage, something that he had never done before.

Snowy went to the door of the cage and demanded, "Well, where's my letter? What have you done to it? And who's been writing to me?"

"No one," Bristle meowed brusquely. "It was mailed to you by accident. As for the letter, I burned it."

Angry that this wasn't the answer that he expected, Snowy poked his paw through the cage and growled, "It wasn't sent to me by accident! You saw that it had the address to my cage in this stupid closet!"

"Silence!" Bristle spat. But as a few spiders dropped down, Bristle glanced up at the spiders dropping down from the ceiling and he gave a few pants before smiling painfully and meowing sheepishly, "Well...yes, um, Snowy...I have something to tell you about this cage. We've been thinking that it's too small for you now. So it'd be best if you moved into Tubby's second room."

"But why?" Snowy asked him, daring to ask him a question.

Bristle snarled, "Don't ask questions! Just take this stuff upstairs, please!" So Snowy did just that.

The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Bristle and Tulip, one for visitors (typically Bristle's sister, Dolores), one where Tubby slept, and one where Tubby kept all the cat toys and objects that wouldn't fit into his original bedroom. It only took Snowy one voyage upstairs to move all he owned from the cage to this very room. He sat down on the bed and looked around him.

Almost everything in here was wrecked: the month-old cat camera was lying on top of a small, working plane Tubby had once hit the neighbors' parrot; in the corner was Tubby's first T.V., which he kicked it when his choice show was canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a cockatoo that Tubby had swapped at obedience school for a real grenade, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Tubby chewed it. Other shelves were full of books, but they were the lone things in the room that looked as though they were never read.

Below the floor, Tubby was whining to his mother, "I don't want him in there. I NEED that room. Make him leave!"

_Too bad, _Snowy thought tiredly, sighing and lying down on the bed. The past day, he would have given up anything to stay in the room. But now, he would rather be back in his cage with the letter than be up in this room without that valuable paper. He gave a weary sigh before curling up into a ball and falling into an uneasy nap.

**...**

The next morning, everything was calm...until Tubby came into the kitchen with a shocking kind of behavior. He had screeched, hit his father with his Meltings stick, puked on purpose, scratched his mother, bit Daniel's leg, and threw his tortoise through the hothouse roof. Despite all of that stuff, however, he still didn't have his room back. Snowy was thinking about this time yesterday and sullenly wishing he had opened the letter in the hall. And Daniel looked harassed as if he couldn't understand why his two cats were acting this way; that, and having his leg bitten.

When the mail came again today, Bristle sent Tubby this time to get the mail, seeming to try and be nice to his nephew. The other cats heard him bang his club everywhere and they heard him yowl, "Here's another one! '_Mr. Snowy Potter, The Littlest Room, Number 6 Evergreen Ave…_"

With a yowl, Bristle got up from his breakfast and burst into the hall with Snowy following him. The big gray cat had to wrestle his kitten to the floor and it was harder since Snowy was clinging onto his uncle's tail. Just after a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Meltings stick, Bristle stood up while out of breath and holding Snowy's letter between his jaws.

He wheezed at Snowy, "Just get to your...bedroom, please!"

So Snowy did just that. He began padding around and around his new bedroom, thinking. He realized that someone knew he had moved out of his cage and they seemed to know he didn't get his first letter. _Maybe I should try again?_ And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail in their mission. He had a plan; he knew he shouldn't, but he should.

**...**

The mended alarm clock on the shelf next to the bed rang at six the next morning. Snowy used his front paws to turn it off without delay and groomed himself noiselessly. He must not wake the Dursleys, he believed, or he would be literal dead meat.

He flew downstairs without turning on every light. He was going to wait for the mailman on the corner of Evergreen Avenue and get the letters for Number Six first. His heart pounded hard as he moved stealthily across the shady hall toward the front door...

"OOOWWW!"

Snowy leapt around five feet into the air; he had trampled on something large and mushy on the doormat...something was large and _alive_! Lights clicked on upstairs and, to his dismay, Snowy realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face. Uncle Bristle was lying at the foot of the front door, clearly making sure that Snowy didn't take the mail.

He yelled at Snowy for around thirty minutes and then told him to go make him a cup of coffee. Snowy dragged his feet sadly off into the kitchen and, by the time he got back, the mail came, right at Bristle's paws. Snowy could see three letters addressed in emerald ink.

"Hey!" Snowy began, but Bristle was already chewing them up and ripping them apart with his claws.

Bristle didn't go to work with Daniel that day. Instead, he stayed at home and began taking down the mailbox. "You see?" Bristle meowed to Tulip while chewing through the wood. "If they can't deliver these letters, they'll give up!"

"I don't think it'll work, Bristle," Tulip mewed.

"Oh, Tulip, these cats aren't like you and me: normal cats. Their minds work in very strange ways," Bristle protested as he climbed to the top of the barn-shaped mailbox and started chewing through the roof.

**...**

That Friday, around twelve letters for Snowy had come. Since the letters couldn't be delivered through mailbox (Bristle got into big trouble for that), they were pushed through the cracks of the front door and through the small bathroom door downstairs.

Once again, Bristle lagged behind from going with Daniel to work. Rather, he did this task after burning the letters in the fireplace: hiring a repairman to nail up the cracks around the front door and the back door so no one could get through easily; even the cat-flaps were nailed shut. He was humming the song "Bad" by Michael Jackson as he handed the repairman some nails.

**...**

On Saturday, things got really messed up. Around twenty-five letters for Snowy arrived at the house, rolled up and hidden in each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused local farmer gave Daniel and Tulip when they visited the farm. While Bristle began to complain to the local farm cats, Tulip began to get rid of the papers while mixing them into the pigs' mash.

Snowy turned to Tubby and the obese kitten mewed in astonishment, "Who's trying to write to you so badly?"

For that, Snowy had no answer.

**...**

Finally on Sunday morning, Bristle dug into his cat food, looking rather tired and ill-looking yet rather satisfied.

"Fine day today," the gray flat-faced tom meowed gruffly yet happily. "And you want to know why?"

"'Cause there's no mail on Sunday," Snowy murmured sadly.

Bristle nodded heartily and purred, "Right you are, Snowy!" Then he began to eat his breakfast of cat food on the ground while Daniel made his own breakfast. "There is no mail on Sundays, everyone," he reminded every cat in the kitchen cheerfully as he wiped his mouth with a dirty sock since he was going crazy. "Yessiree. No damn letters today..."

But as soon as he finished that, something flew by the window, but Snowy was the only one who saw it. But in the next minute, something small was flying down from the chimney and caught him stridently on the back of the head. Next jiffy, thirty or forty letters came bombarding out of the fireplace like bees. The Dursleys ducked, but Snowy leapt into the air trying to catch one-

"GET BACK HERE! OUT!" Bristle yowled, catching Snowy hard on the head with his paw, but Daniel stepped angrily toward Bristle and kicked him so hard that he hit the wall into the main hall. While Tulip and Tubby had run out with their faces lowered, Daniel picked up all four cats and threw them outside and slammed the door shut. The cats could hear the letters still flowing into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor, and Daniel cursing angrily.

"That's the final straw!" Bristle yowled furiously, chomping on his fur. "Get ready to leave in five minutes; Daniel doesn't want us anymore! Just pack small things and don't argue!"

Since Uncle Bristle looked frightening with his yellow eyes reddened with madness that no one argued except with Tubby squeaking to his mother, "Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?"

Ten minutes later, they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and evaded Daniel trying to kick the cats. They were now in an empty compartment on a train away from the house. Tubby was sniffling since Daniel had stepped on his tail for trying to sneak some food away from his pantry.

They rode and rode and rode on in the train. Even Tulip didn't ask her mate about where they were going. Sometimes Bristle would mutter "Shake 'em off" when the train made a sharp turn.

Since they didn't eat or drink anything all day, Tubby was already bawling. He never had a bad day in his entire life; he was starving, he wanted to watch T.V., and he was sick of picking on Snowy for the time being. Finally, the train stopped at a hotel at Sutton Alpine. Both Tubby and Snowy were forced to share a room while Bristle and Tulip got their own room. At night, Tubby was already snoring in his sleep.

But Snowy sat on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and thinking about how to escape this life.

Suddenly, by instinct, he quietly unlocked the door and slipped out without his cousin noticing. He climbed up to the very top of the building and gazed at the stars blinking down at him. He wondered if his parents were looking down at him and see his misery. Then, Snowy lifted his muzzle into the air and let out a divine yowl into the night sky. To humans and other cats, this was irritating; to him, however, it was a yowl of honor and tranquility...

**...**

The next morning, the three cats ate stale muffins and canned peanuts for breakfast. Snowy didn't like this stuff; he instead craved for something more. When he saw a mouse run around the hotel, he had suddenly felt his mouth water unexpectedly. As they walked out the door when they were finished eating, the hotel owner's cat, a black-pelted she-cat, padded over to them.

"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. Snowy Potter? I just got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." she meowed to them in a Southern United States accent. She was holding a letter with emerald green ink in her jaws and it read:

_Mr. Snowy Potter_

_Room 20_

_Sullen Alpine_

_Alaska_

Feeling pretty hopeful, Snowy stepped forward to intercept the letter from her, but to his dismay, Bristle knocked him out of the way, leaving the she-cat to stare at them in confusion. "I'll take that," he meowed, taking the letter from her jaws and padding back into the hotel, perhaps to rip it apart.

Sometime later that afternoon, Tulip suggested nervously to her mate, "Dear, won't it be a good idea to go back home?" But Bristle didn't seem to listen; instead, he seemed to rather be saying something under his breath, clearly too quiet to hear.

None of the three other cats seemed to know where Bristle was taking them. They rode into the middle of a forest, Bristle got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the train, and off they went. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, near a suspension bridge, and right near a dirty skyscraper.

_He's gone so crazy that even Tubby noticed, _Snowy thought as Bristle hopped out of the train near the coast, mentioned for the others to stay on board for a bit, and went off on his own to who knows where.

When it began to rain while the humans unloaded things from some parts of the train, Tubby began to whimper as they were nearly caught by the humans and they were hearing the rain beat onto the top of the train. While his cousin moaned, Snowy heard one word that seemed to bear into mind.

Monday. The next day was Monday, thanks to Tubby knowing TV. And also the next day was his own eleventh birthday, but the others weren't always joyful, mainly when they just gave him nothing but a light bulb and Bristle's oldest cat-scarf. But he knew the old saying: you can't be your own age everyday.

Bristle came back to the train and he seemed to be happy, for he was skipping to them like a fawn and he had a big shifty grin on his face; plus, he had some kind of package that wasn't talked about. "Everyone hop off because I found the perfect place!" He waited till the others were off the train and he pointed his tail to a rock in the middle of the sea with the most awful looking shack Snowy had ever seen. One thing that he knew was that there was no television there.

"Tonight's forecast will be stormy skies!" Bristle purred cheerfully. "And this old cat and his owner are letting us rent their boat for now!" he added, pointing with his tail to an old brown tom with a toothless leer on his face, who was waiting for his owner to hop off of the boat in the gray water.

Bristle went on, "All aboard since I have rations!"

It was chilly bitter cold in the boat. Icy sea mist and rain crept down their necks and fur and an unpleasantly cold current of air whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours, they reached the rock, where Uncle Bristle led the way to the shack.

The inside was atrocious; it smelled powerfully of seaweed, the stormy wind whistled through the cracks in the timber walls, and the hearth was soggy and unfilled. To add insult to injury, there were only two rooms.

Bristle's rations turned out to be nothing but four bags of stale cat food and one lemon for each cat. To prove to be useful, he tried to light a fire with the lighter in his paws, but he got his paws burnt. Even that didn't seem to upset him too much, for he just gave a smile to them and added, "So I guess we can do without those letters, eh?" since no one could maybe deliver those letters.

Snowy, although he agreed with his gray-haired uncle, felt rather horrible on the inside. This bit of news didn't cheer him up at all.

**...**

As darkness fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Vapor from the high waves splashed against the walls of the shelter and a brutal current of air rattled the grimy windows. Tulip had found some moldy blankets in the other room and gave almost all of them to Tubby to make a bed for her kitten while she and Bristle went to the other room. But all that Snowy received was a bit of floor and a piece of blanket near the fireplace.

The rainstorm raged more and more violently as the hours of darkness went on. But poor little Snowy couldn't sleep at all; he trembled and turned over, trying to get contented, but his belly was rumbling with hunger. Tubby's loud snoring was fortunately drowned out by the loud claps of thunder and the low howling of the wind. From the way the broken clock on the wall was set, Snowy would become eleven years old in just ten more minutes. As he curled up into a ball, he wondered if the Dursley cats would ever remember it at all and he wondered and hoped if the letter sender would answer back.

There were now five more minutes to go, but Snowy heard a creaking sound from outside. Although he might get warmer if the roof fell in, Snowy hoped that it would fall through.

There were four more to go. He wondered if Daniel was still angry at his cats for all the letters going into his large house. But he could maybe go back and grab one without getting kicked in the ribs.

_Just three more minutes to go,_ Snowy thought as he heard the waves splash around the rock like that. _And what's that creaking sound? Is the rock falling into the sea? _He wondered fearfully as there were two more minutes to go.

One minute for him to go and he'd be eleven finally. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine-

To pass the time, Snowy drew a picture of a cake with candles in the sand with his paw and murmured to himself, "Make a wish, Snowy." And, with that, he blew the candles from the sandy cake.

BOOM!

The whole hut shook and trembled at the impact of the exploding sound and Snowy sat bolt upright, unsheathing his claws, arching his back, and ruffling his fur to make himself look bigger than he really was as he stared at the door with horror. Something huge was trying to burst into the door with force...

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat09: (To Harry, Ron and Hermione) Sorry, you three, but I gotta go for now. (All three groan)**

**Katara: Don't worry, guys. He'll be back to make the next chapter. But he'll maybe have to update some others first.**

**Ron: We understand. See ya around, you two! (All three leave, hopeful for the next chapter)**

**Katara: I'm sure they'll come back soon, AvatarCat.**

**AvatarCat09: I know. Now let's go on with the review part.**

**You know what to do: review and choose which prize you want. And one more thing: do I give out too much prizes? But please review; they'll make Snowy feel better.**

**Everyone in the room: See ya next time!**


	4. Gamekeeper of the Forest

**AvatarCat09: Hey, it's AvatarCat09 here and I'm back with Katara, Harry, Ron, and Hermione with continuing the story of Nightfang and the Elixir Stone! Plus, here are the voices for Nightfang series that I believe so far: Nightkit (Snowy) is like Matthew Broderick. The kittypets are just the same ones. Badgerstripe is like John Goodman.**

**Harry: Is this where my cat form meets Hagrid's cat form? I didn't see his cat form yet.**

**Katara: This chapter will say his cat form, Harry. Don't you worry.**

**Nyra: (Flies into the room and cackling manically) I, Nyra, shall reunite the Pure Ones and take over the world!**

**Ron: (Points his wand to Nyra) **_**Stupify! **_**(Blasts Nyra away)**

**Hermione: Ron! Why'd you blast that poor owl away?**

**Harry: She's evil, Hermione.**

**Hermione: Oh, okay. (Points her wand at Nyra) **_**Stupify! **_**(Blasts Nyra away when she staggers back) NOW can Ron say the disclaimer?**

**Ron: Me? (AvatarCat09, Katara, Harry, and Hermione nod) Great! Everyone knows that AvatarCat09 doesn't own Harry Potter or us and he doesn't own Warriors. And this is when your cat form meets Hagrid?**

**AvatarCat09: (Answers for Harry) Yeah. And Hagrid will be here the next chapter and say the disclaimer. In the meantime, enjoy! (He, Katara, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sit in their armchairs and face the screen)**

**...**

_Gamekeeper Of The Forest_

BOOM! The door suddenly rattled when something large rammed itself to the door. Snowy backed away further and further away from the door.

Behind him, Tubby woke up and jerked his head up at the sound. He was muttering something so stupid that Snowy blocked it out of his mind as he backed away from the door. There was a crash from behind them and they turned to see Uncle Bristle barging his way out of the second room as he held a club in between his jaws; that was the package he was holding.

He set it down to snarl, "Who's out there? I'm armed, so I'm warning you now!"

CRASH!

The door was hit with so much force that it was broken clean off its hinges and with a boisterous crash landed flat on the ground. A gigantic cat the size of a tiger padded through the doorway and sat there. His body was covered with coarse short black fur with two curious white stripes running from his head to his tail and he had the darkest amber eyes that Snowy had ever seen. Plus, this cat was the biggest cat he had ever seen in his life, bigger than a tiger.

"Sorry 'bout that," the giant cat grunted, padding his way through the doorway into the hut and the sand crumbled from where he stepped. He then crouched down, took the door with both front paws, and fitted it back into its frame as easily as playing with a puzzle.

The clamor from the hurricane seemed a little less deafening than usual from outside the cottage. Then the huge tom looked around at the Dursleys and meowed, "So you couldn't' make a mug o' hot Joe, huh? I tell ya that it wasn't no easy journey."

Bristle made a noise as if he were a mouse being trodden on. "I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he growled, holding the club high into the air. "You are breaking and entering!"

"Dry up, Dursley, yeh ugly fox-heart!" the huge tom snarled. He stalked over to the gray tom, yanked the club out of his jaws, and slashed it to shreds with claws as large as an eagle's talons. He tore it up as if it was nothing but an old sheet of paper and he tossed the pieces to the corner of the room.

All Bristle did was gulp.

The massive black cat then glanced over at Tubby and prowled towards him. "Hey, I haven't seen yeh since yeh were a kit, Nightkit! But yeh're a bit more along then I would've. Mainly 'round the middle."

"I-I'm not Nightkit," Tubby whimpered.

"I am," Snowy mewed as he got up from his spot.

He cringed as the black tiger-sized tom turned his gaze to him and purred, "Well, of course yeh are! Yeh look mostly like yer Maine Coon papa but yeh got yer British Shorthair mama's eyes." A wide happy smile crept onto his face as he spoke to Snowy and his voice shook with pride.

Snowy didn't get it; he didn't know a lot about this "Nightkit" that the giant cat was talking about, but now he knew this "Nightkit" had to be him. He also wondered about how a cat this huge and scary knew about him. He wasn't the one spying on him and his relatives. But telling him this would be impolite, so he gave a wobbly nod back.

"Anyways, Nightkit," he meowed when he turned back to Snowy. "Happy birthday to ya! I got somethin' for yeh here; sorry if I sat on it, but it'll taste A-OK!"

The tiger-sized cat reached into a large black bag on his shoulder and gently pulled out a faintly squashed box and set it down in front of Snowy; he jerked his head to it as if to encourage him to open it. Snowy opened it with his trembling teeth and he saw what was inside: a large slightly squashed chocolate cake with the words _Happee Birthday, Nightkit _written on it with green icing.

Snowy gazed up at the large black cat, adapting his new name, wanting to say thank-you, but he mewed also, "Thank you, but who are you?"

The huge black cat laughed and purred, "Sorry I didn' introduce myself. Name's Badgerstripe Hagrid, Gamekeeper of the Forest and Keeper of the Keys and Grounds." He patted Nightkit so hard yet so heartily he felt himself sink into the sand. Seeing his mistake, Badgerstripe pulled him back up and mewed, "So what about that Joe, eh? I won't reject anything stronger, if you don't mind."

His eyes fell on the empty grate with the dried-up bags of cat food in it and he grunted with contempt. He bowed down over the fireplace; the others couldn't see what he was doing, but when he drew back a second later, there was a thriving fire in there. It filled the whole moist cabin with sparkling light and Nightkit felt the heat rinse over him as though he had sunk into a hot spring.

The giant tomcat sat back down on the couch, which sagged under his huge weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of his black bag: a copper pot, a spongy package of sausages and bacon, a poker, a teapot, some cut mugs, and a bottle of some strange amber liquid that he drunk from before starting to make coffee.

Soon the shelter was full of the noise and smell of sizzling sausage and bacon. Nobody said a thing while the tiger-like cat was working, but as he slid the first six plump, slightly burnt, succulent sausages from the poker, Tubby twitched. Bristle whispered to him, "Tubby, don't eat anything he gives to you."

Badgerstripe turned to them and laughed forebodingly, "Dursley, your son ain't gonna need more fattenin' anymore, don't you dare worry." At this, he began handing Nightkit some sausages and bacon and even a dead mouse. First, Nightkit tried the mouse and it tasted very wild-like yet delicious...even though he wanted it cooked just a little.

Nightkit hadn't tasted anything so wonderful before, but he was still confused and he couldn't take his eyes from the large cat's eyes. Since no one was talking, Nightkit finally asked the large cat, "Forgive me, but I still don't know who you entirely are."

"Just call me Badgerstripe," Badgerstripe replied, lapping up coffee and licking his chest fur after that. "Everyone calls me that, but it's okay. I'm the Gamekeeper of the Forest and Keeper of the Keys and Grounds; I already told ya that. I'm sure you know everything about the Forest."

"Uh...no."

Badgerstripe gaped at him with surprise and shock.

"Er...sorry," Nightkit muttered quickly, looking down in shame.

"Sorry?" Badgerstripe repeated in disbelief. "SORRY? It's THOSE GUYS who oughta be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters, but I never once did think yeh don't know anythin' 'bout the Forest! Yeh don't even know where yer parents learned it all?"

Nightkit just mewed, "All what?"

"All what? ALL WHAT?" Badgerstripe roared, his voice filled with rage. "Now wait just one sec!"

All three Dursley cats cowered against the wall as Badgerstripe towered over them. Then he hissed with rage, "Are yeh tellin' me that this guy...and I mean this guy...knows nothin' about ANYTHIN'?"

But Nightkit thought that this was going too far enough, so he placed himself between the housecats and the huge wildcat and he meowed, "But I can do things like read, count, and write."

"Not that," Badgerstripe told him calmly. "I'm talkin' about our world. Yer world. My world. _Yer parents' world."_

"What world?"

"DURSELY!" Badgerstripe suddenly roared, looking as if he were rabid.

Bristle looked frightened, yet he lowered his head and muttered what sounded like, "Nonsense" before Badgerstripe turned back to Nightkit, staring at him wildly, and added to him, "But yeh must probably now yer parents since I know them as well. What I'm sayin' is that yer mama's famous, yer papa's famous, and YEH'RE famous."

Nightkit couldn't believe what he was hearing. He and his family were FAMOUS? He must've heard wrong or Badgerstripe was incorrect. He told him, "Hold on. They...they weren't famous, were they?"

The giant cat gazed down at him with wonder in his dark amber eyes and he scratched his ear with his hind paw, muttering, "You just don't know... And you don't know who you _are?"_

Suddenly, Bristle shouted angrily, "Not so fast, sir! I forbid you to tell him anything!"

A braver cat would shrink back from the outraged glare that Badgerstripe gave him and, when Badgerstripe spoke, every syllable that he spoke shook and vibrated with pure rage as if he wanted to tear them apart. Badgerstripe snarled:

"Yeh didn't have the moxie to tell him? Yeh never told him 'bout the letter that Silverstar left for him? Well, for yer info, I was there when Silverstar left it there, Dursley, and don't yeh forget it! So yeh kept it hidden from him for many moons? How low down can yeh idiots get?"

"Keep me from what?" Nightkit asked.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" Bristle screeched manically while Tulip just let out a gulp of terror.

Badgerstripe snorted, "Aw, go jump into a pool of wolverines." Nightkit was amazed to see a certain glow shine in the huge black cat's amber eyes as he told him, "Yer a warrior, Nightkit."

There was stillness inside the shelter, but only the sea and the whistling blustery weather could be heard. Nightkit rubbed his eyes with one of his fore paws with incredulity. He couldn't believe what he just heard; he was a warrior? He thought they were just a nonsensical tale. "I'm a what?"

"A warrior, Nightkit. And a really grand one, I oughta add...once ya get trained well enough," Badgerstripe purred satisfyingly, sitting on the sofa again and making it groan under his weight. "What else would ya be with parents like yours? Plus, you'll know about magic along with being a warrior cat. And now I present to ya yer letter."

He reached into his black bag once again and drew out a sapphire letter with emerald ink. Now knowing that he could read the letter without his relatives tearing it to shreds, Nightkit, with trembling paws, had to stand on his hind legs to gently intercede it from the large cat's jaws. The letter read:

_Mr. Nightkit Potter_

_The Fireplace_

_Cabin On A Rock_

_The Ocean_

Paws still trembling, Nightkit pulled it open and began to read his letter at last:

_**The Forest, School of Warriorism**_

_**Leader: Silverstar = silver tabby tom with blue eyes**_

_**Order of Thunder, First Class, Grand Leader, Chief Warrior, Highest Authority, Worldwide Confederacy of Warriors**_

_Dear Mr. Nightkit,_

_We are happy to enlighten you that you have been accepted and will be educated in the Forest, School of Warriorism. Please find enclosed a listing of all essential utensils and books._

_First term begins on September 1 close to the end of greenleaf. We wait for your owl by no later than July the 31._

_Yours sincerely, Thistleheart, Deputy of the Forest_

Immediately, questions swarmed like bees inside of Nightkit's head since he didn't know what question to ask Badgerstripe first. After just a few moments of temporary silence, he finally asked the huge tom, "When they say that they wait for my owl, what does that mean?"

"Great StarClan, Nightkit! I forgot somethin'!" Badgerstripe shouted, slamming a paw the size of human head to his own head so fast that it would kill a rabbit extremely hurriedly. He put his paw into his black bag once again and pulled out a small yet real and messy elf owl, an eagle feather quill, and a piece of scroll. Writing very perfectly for a cat, he jotted down a note that Nightkit could read upside down:

_Dear Silverstar,_

_I got to Nightkit and got his letter to 'im._

_And I'm takin' 'im to get his stuff tomorrow._

_The weather's as bad as Hurricane Katrina. Hope yeh're okay._

_Badgerstripe._

Badgerstripe rolled up the letter, gave it to the elf owl, which held it tightly in its beak, went to the entrance, and threw the little owl out into the typhoon. Then he came back and sat back down on the sofa as though he was a human talking on the cell phone. Nightkit opened his mouth wide and widened his eyes, but he closed them back up at once.

"So where was I?" Badgerstripe began.

"He will NOT be going there! We vowed we would stomp out that dangerous rubbish!" Bristle spat, his fur bristling with fright and now anger. "Warrior indeed!"

Nightkit looked from his uncle to Badgerstripe with surprise; no one told him that he was a true warrior when he was living at Daniel's house for nearly ten years. If Daniel knew about it, why didn't he translate it into cat language and tell him? He squeaked incredulously, "So you knew? You KNEW that all along that I was a warrior and you didn't tell me?"

"Knew? _Knew?_ Of course we knew?" Nightkit was surprised to see Tulip stalk over to them with her voice and yellow eyes filled with resentment. "How could you be NOT be when my foolish sister was one herself? She got a letter just like you and went off to that...that _jungle..._and came home every summer vacation with mouse blood on her jaws and turning needles into spoons. My parents were, oh so 'Lilypelt this' and 'Lilypelt that' that they were proud to have a warrior in the family!"

She gave a false cheery laugh and breathed as if she was dying to say that a little before going on bitterly and angrily: "But I for one saw what she truly was...a _freak_! Then she met that..._Maine Coon Potter _at school and they left, got married, and had you. Of course I knew that you'd be as... _abnormal_. And if you please, they went and blew up in an experiment and we got stuck with a runt like you!"

"Blew up?" Nightkit spat furiously. It was entirely unfair that Tulip would speak about her sister like this, but this wasn't what she told him before. "You were the one who told me my parents got run over by a car!"

"MONSTER?" Badgerstripe thundered so angrily that the Dursley cats cowered back into their corner. "How could a monster run over Lilypelt and Darkfire?"

"We had to tell him something," Tulip snapped coldly.

"It's lies and an outrage! A scandal!" Badgerstripe roared. "I can't believe you didn't tell him his own story when every kit in our world knows his name!"

Nightkit calmed down while the huge black tom was roaring at the Dursleys and he asked him urgently, "Well, what happened?"

The anger from Badgerstripe's face washed away to be replaced with worry as he murmured, "Geez, I never expected that one, kid. I didn't have a clue when Silverstar told me there'd be problems gettin' hold of ya, how much yeh didn't know. Y'know, I might not be the right cat to tell ya this, but...someone's gotta tell yeh. Ya can't go to the Forest not knowin'."

At this, he threw another nasty look at the Dursley cats before continuing, "It'll be good for yeh to know as much as I can give to yeh. But I can't tell yeh everything. It's a mystery...well, some of it."

He sat down at the fire and stared into it, murmuring, "Well, I suppose it all began with...with a warrior, but it's weird not knowin' his name. I mean, everyone in our world knows."

"Who?"

"I don't like sayin' the name. No one does."

"Why not?"

"StarClan's kits, Nightkit, cats are still frightened!" Badgerstripe mewed to him, looking up from the fireplace and staring deep into his green eyes. "But is this difficult! Look, there was this bear that went bad. No, as bad as you go. No, worse. Worse than worse. He was worse than any man-eating bear in history. His name was..." But he stopped right there and gulped.

Nightkit tilted his head to one side and asked him, "Why don't you write it down?"

Badgerstripe shook his head. "Can't spell it right. Okay, here's the name: Red Helmet."

"Red Helmet?"

"Shhh! Don't say it!" Badgerstripe hissed quickly. "Anyways, this...bear...from twenty years ago started gatherin' followers fast. Some wanted power and others were too scared. Those were dark days, Nightkit. Didn't know who to trust and didn't dare get nice with strange warriors; terrible things happened. He was takin' over everywhere; some stood up to him, but he killed 'em. He did it totally and bloodily. One of the only safe places left was the Forest since Silverstar's the only one You-Know-Who was scared of. Well, he didn't try takin' the school. Not just then, anyway."

The big black cat had a nostalgic look on his face as he went on, "Now yer parents were as good warriors as I ever knew. They were even Head Cats at the Forest in their day! I think the mystery is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before. He most likely knew they were too close to Silverstar to go to the Dark Side. Maybe he thought he'd convince 'em...or maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All everyone knows is that he turned up in the house in the woods where yeh all lived, on Halloween ten years ago. Yeh were just a year old. He came to yer house, but yer parents tried to fight 'im off bravely. But..."

But Badgerstripe broke off while his voice cracked with sadness. He wiped a fore paw at his eyes and as he wiped them, he blew into it and sounded much like a moose. He gulped, "Sorry, kid, but it's always sad to recall the tale. I knew your parents personally and I never met cats like 'em. Anyways, here it is...

"They didn't make it. You-Know-Who killed them. But this is the real mystery: he tried to kill yeh too. Maybe he just wanted to get it over with or maybe he just liked killin' cats and Twolegs. _But he couldn't do it._"

Nightkit was shocked. "He tried to kill me?"

Badgerstripe nodded. "Yeh know how you got that scar on your forehead? This ain't no ordinary scar; it's from a curse...and an awful one too. That took care of yer mama, papa, and even your Twolegs' nest; that's why they moved away. But that didn't work on yeh! Many cats lived after You-Know-Who went after them and he went after many good cats. But yeh were just a little kit and _yeh lived. _You are The Cat Who Lived."

Something very painful and upsetting erupted inside of Nightkit's mind like a volcano. Since Badgerstripe told his true story, he did remember a flash of red light, but they weren't car lights. They were glowing red eyes, eyes filled with evil just like Satan himself. And he could hear it now: instead of a car honking, he heard a demonic laugh, a bear roaring, and the slash of claws on fur and the smell of blood.

As he looked down with sorrow and feeling a tear well up into his eyes, Badgerstripe gazed at him sadly and he murmured consolingly, "I was the one who took ya from the ruins myself on behalf of Silverstar's orders. And I brought ya to these big shitheads..." he added, glaring at the kittypets.

"Loads of rubbish!" Nightkit jumped a little when Bristle's voice growled from behind him. He had nearly forgotten that the Dursley cats were still there. Uncle Bristle certainly seemed to have got back his nerve as he was glaring at Badgerstripe, his claws unsheathing.

To Nightkit, he snarled, "Now you better listen to me, boy! I understand there's something weird about you. Maybe nothing that a good cuffing couldn't cure... And as for your parents, they're a disgrace to all cats and they're better off dead! They got what they deserved, mixing up with cats like that! I knew they'd get what's given to them..."

But suddenly, Badgerstripe leaped from the sofa in between them, blocking Nightkit from his uncle's glare and holding a staff in his jaws. "One more word outta ya, kittypet," he snarled. "Just one more..." In peril of being jabbed on the end of staff by a panther, Bristle's nerve failed him again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell quiet.

"Good," Badgerstripe snorted, breathing deeply and sat back down onto the old couch, which collapsed this time from his great weight. He mewed to Nightkit gently, "Sorry about that."

Nightkit nodded in reply, but he still had tons of questions to ask this panther. "So what happened to Red...I mean...You-Know-Who?"

"That's a very good question, Nightkit. He disappeared. Vanished. And that was on the same night he tried to kill ya. That's what makes ya even more well-known. _That's_ the biggest mystery of 'em all, you know; he was gettin' more and more powerful. But why did he go?

"Some cats say that he died and that's a lot of fox-dung there. I'm not sure if he had a lotta bear in him to die. Some cats say that he's still out there, bidin' his time, but I don't believe any it. Cats who were with him came back to our side. Some of them came outta trances. Most of us think he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. He could be too weak to carry on 'cause somethin' about yeh beat him, Nightkit. There was somethin' goin' on that hour of darkness that he hadn't known. Even _I _don't know what it was, no one does. But yeh stumped him, all right!"

The huge black cat finished and looked at Nightkit with kindness and reverence blazing in his dark amber eyes, but Nightkit, instead of feeling happy and proud, felt rather sure there had been an awful slip-up.

How could he possibly be a warrior? He had spent his life being cuffed by Tubby and oppressed by Aunt Tulip and Uncle Bristle even though he was treated reasonably by Daniel; if he was really a warrior, why didn't he turn them into ants every time they tried to lock him in his cage? If he once defeated the most evil bear there ever was, why did Tubby kick him around like a toy?

"Uh, Badgerstripe? You must've made a mistake," he mewed timidly. "I can't be a warrior. I'm...Snowy! Just Snowy!"

To his amazement, Badgerstripe just purred and replied, "Well, 'Just Snowy,' yeh ever made anythin' strange happen if yeh were sad, or angry, or scared?"

Nightkit tilted his head to one side incredulously and looked into the fire. Now he realized: every abnormal thing that had ever made his kin mad at him had happened when he was upset or angry. When he was chased by Tubby's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach and tore off a cat's ear. When he feared going to school with his shaved fur, he made it grow back. And the time Tubby beat him up, didn't he get payback without knowing it? Didn't he set a wolf snake onto him?

He stared back at Badgerstripe, who just smiled at him, chuckled again, and purred, "Uh huh. Just you wait; you'll be great at the Forest!"

But Uncle Bristle wasn't going to give up without a fight. He snarled at Badgerstripe, "I'm telling you again! He will not be going to that madhouse! He will be going to Rockington Obedience School and he'll be grateful for it! I've seen all the rubbish that the madhouse offers him..."

"And if he wants to go to the Forest, yeh ain't gonna stop him!" Badgerstripe retorted heatedly. "Do yeh think yeh can stop the son of Lilypelt and Darkfire from going there? Yeh're all crazy, the lot of yeh! And I suppose a big ol' kittypet will try and stop us?"

"A kittypet?" Nightkit asked with curiosity.

"Non-magic cats," Badgerstripe told him before rounding back to the house cats. "This kid's name's been spread out since he was born and he'll be off to the greatest school of Warriorism in the entire world! He'll be there for seven years of his life; he'll be _changed_ for life! He'll be with kids his own age, and he'll be taught under the greatest leader ever: Silverstar Dumbledore."

"I WILL NOT PAY SOME FOOLISH OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM TO EAT MICE!" Bristle screeched awfully noisily.

Nightkit could tell his uncle went too far since Badgerstripe stalked forward at him, his claws unsheathing and his staff held stiffly in his jaws. He breathed heavily as he hissed angrily, "Don't yeh dare...insult Silverstar...right before me."

Seeing Tubby sneaking toward Nightkit's cake, he brought the staff whirling around through the air to point it at the gray kit. There was a flash of indigo light, a sound like a rocket, a sharp squeal, and soon Dudley was trotting on the spot with his front paws clasped over his fat head, howling in pain. When he let go, Snowy saw a curly pig's tail poking out of his head. Uncle Bristle roared with outrage and, pulling the others into the other room, cast one last frightened and angry look at them before he banged the door shut behind them.

Badgerstripe looked down at his staff and groomed the fur on his chest. "Shouldn't' have lost me temper," he muttered contritely. "But it didn't work anyway. I was gonna turn him into a mutant pig, but he looked like a pig so much anyway that there wasn't much left to do. Plus, I got this from a cat with strange markings from the future and he had an extra one left over."

He looked at Nightkit and gave him a look before mewing, "I'll thank ya if you don't mention this at the Forest. I'm...uh... not supposed to do magic, so to speak. I'm allowed to do some to track you and get yer letters to ya and stuff...one of the reasons I was so eager to take the job."

"Why can't you use any?"

"I...uh...I used to go to the Forest, but I...um...got exiled in my third year. They wrecked my tail-wand and all that other stuff," Badgerstripe mewed, looking down as if in mourning. But then he lifted his head and added happily, "But Silverstar was nice enough to give me a job at the Forest as the gamekeeper and Guardian of the Gates. Great cat, Silverstar."

Nightkit then mewed, "But why'd you get exiled?"

But Badgerstripe looked sideways as if he didn't want to talk about it as he meowed loudly, "Wow! Look at the moon! We've got lots of stuff to do tomorrow! We gotta get up to the big city and get ya all your books and that other stuff." He took off his thick black cloak and threw it to Nightkit, adding, "You can use that as a blanket and don' even mind if it squirms a bit 'cause I think I still got a couple o' shrews in one of the pockets."

Nightkit nodded, curled up in it, and fell asleep. It was a very eventful night.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat09: Well, there's nothing I'd like to say for now. (Katara, Harry, Ron, and Hermione groan) What? My mom has to be on here to check her Facebook account!**

**So just review, please! I ask you for one!**

**Everyone else: See ya next time!**


	5. Dragon Alley

**AvatarCat09: All right folks, it's time to update Nightfang and the Elixir Stone! In fact, I may also make Nightfang and the Tunnels of Secrets.**

**Katara: What about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team Avatar? Aren't you gonna update it?**

**AvatarCat09: I will sometime.**

**Hermione: If I were you, I'd start really soon or you won't get any good reviews!**

**AvatarCat09: Don't worry, Hermy! (Hermione glares at him again and AvatarCat09 looks away) Sorry. Anyways, I'll get started on that story so soon. Anyways, how about Neville come here and say the disclaimer? Come on out here!**

**(Hermione and Katara escort Neville to the room)**

**Neville: You really want me to say the disclaimer?**

**AvatarCat09: Heck yeah! You were AWESOME in the Battle at Hogwarts!**

**Neville: (Smiles at AvatarCat09) Thanks! Anyways, AvatarCat09 will own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats when Hell freezes over! How's that?**

**AvatarCat09: Awesome! Now enough chitchat! We got a new chapter to watch! Enjoy! (He, Katara, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville sit in chairs facing the screen with snacks and the likes.)**

**...**

_Dragon Alley_

Nightkit woke up the next morning, remembering his own house cat name: Snowy. Even though the sun was now shining through the windows, he kept his green eyes closed, wanting to take pleasure in the dream.

_I had a dream. In my dream, a tiger-sized cat named Badgerstripe came all this way to tell me I can go to an obedience school for warriors. It'll be fun!_

_It's just a dream, dumbbell, _a voice in his head snapped at him. _When you open your eyes, you'll be back in your cage in the closet!_ And soon enough, there was a loud knocking on a window, but he still didn't want to open his eyes. _And that's probably your auntie knocking on the door!_ _Now be a good boy and see who it is, _the voice laughed at him.

Nightkit ignored the sound in his head and sat up as Badgerstripe's thick black cloak fell onto his head. He struggled his way out and looked around the room; the shelter was full of sunshine since the typhoon has finally ended. Badgerstripe himself was fast asleep on the broke-down sofa, and there was a short-eared owl tapping its talon on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.

Nightkit scrambled to his paws, feeling so much in high spirits he felt as though a large frog was bloating itself inside his heart. He went straight to the window and wrenched it open. The owl dove into the room and dropped the newspaper on top of the large form of Badgerstripe, who still didn't wake up. The owl then flapped onto the floor and began to assault the huge black cat's cloak.

"Hey! Stop that!" Nightkit protested, stepping forward and trying to brandish the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak sternly at him and that made him back away before it continued to maul the cloak.

Not knowing what to do, Nightkit called to his new friend, "Badgerstripe! There's an owl attacking your..."

"Pay the little guy," grunted Badgerstripe tiredly. "You know, he wants to be paid for deliverin' the paper. Just look in the pockets," he added dozily when Nightkit didn't say anything.

So Nightkit got to the pockets in the cloak while the owl kept attacking it without distractions. But when he saw the pockets, Badgerstripe's coat didn't seem to be made of anything _but _pockets. There were keys, slug pills, balls of yarn, peppermint humbugs, but Nightkit finally pulled out some strange coins.

"Just give him five Knuts. They're the little bronze ones that look like Twoleg bronze coins," Badgerstripe mewed as he rolled around a little.

So Nightkit counted out five small bronze coins and the short-eared owl held out its leg so the black kitten could put the cash into a tiny skin pocket tied to it. Then the owl hopped out of the window and flew off through the open window.

Badgerstripe got off of the couch, stretched and gave a loud lion-like yawn, and rumbled to Nightkit, "Okay, Nightkit, we gotta lot of stuff to do today. We gotta get up to Juneau to get your school stuff today."

Nightkit was just turning over the warrior coins and looked at them with interest when he just thought of something that made him sense dread. It was as though the joyful frog inside his belly gave a sick croak and died. He remembered Bristle yowling furiously at Badgerstripe about not paying the leader of the Forest to teach him how to eat mice.

"Hey, Badgerstripe?"

"Yeah?"

Nightkit swallowed with nervousness and mewed, "I don't have any money on me at all. And you heard Uncle Bristle tell us that he won't pay for me to go and be a warrior cat."

Badgerstripe purred while sitting down and scratching his ear with his hind leg, replying, "Ah, don't yeh worry 'bout that. Do yeh honestly think yer parents left yeh with nothin'?"

"But since their Twoleg's house was destroyed..." Nightkit began, the odd word instantly sticking to his tongue.

"Nope, yer money's at Liverpool Bank, the bank where you oughta go! And it's named after a city in Great Britain, and that's the ultimate warriors' bank! Go on, have a sausage. They're not bad cold. But I'd throw that mouse away since it's crowfood now, and I'd like some of your birthday cake."

Nightkit did so, but he tilted his head to one side, never hearing of a bank for warrior cats or the word "crowfood" before. He mewed, "So warrior cats have banks?"

Badgerstripe responded, "Yep. Run by monkeys."

"Monkeys?" the black Maine Coon/British Shorthair kitten mewed. He had seen monkeys at the zoo before and they looked like little furry Twolegs with prehensile tails. He never knew they could be so smart that they run banks.

"Yeah. You'd be crazy to rob it," the huge black cat meowed. "So don't ever mess with monkeys, Nightkit. They're smart, but they're not the kindest critters. Liverpool is the safest place on Earth for anything you wanna keep secure...except perhaps the Forest. Besides, I was gonna go there for business."

Badgerstripe puffed his chest out proudly. "He regularly gets me to do important stuff for him like fetchin' you and gettin' things from Liverpool. He knows he can trust me. Got everythin' together? Let's move out. Unless you wanna stay, of course?"

Nightkit scrambled after the large tom out onto the rock since he was much bigger than Nightkit. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Bristle had employed was still here, but it had a lot of water in the underside after the typhoon.

"So how'd you get here?" Nightkit asked, looking around for another boat but not seeing any.

"Eh, I just flew here," was Badgerstripe's reply. Seeing the astonished look on Nightkit's face, he added, "Yeah, I flew here, but we'll take this hunk of wood with us to the mainland, now that I can't use magic since I got ya now."

With Nightkit still staring at Badgerstripe, the two cats climbed into the boat with Nightkit wondering about how Badgerstripe could fly without wings.

**(Author's Note: Just like the song Flying Without Wings by Ruben Studdard!)**

Badgerstripe looked around with a shifty look on his face before meowing to Nightkit, "It'll be a cryin' shame to row all the way with paws in case a shark comes. You mind not tellin' anyone at the Forest about me...eh...speeding things up a bit?"

"I don't mind. And I won't tell anyone. I promise," Nightkit promised truthfully, craving to see more magic being performed. So Badgerstripe pulled out his orange staff again, tapped the edge of the boat three times, and the boat sped off to land faster than a cheetah.

As they rode in the speeding boat, Nightkit gazed up at Badgerstripe and asked him, "Why would anyone be crazy to steal from Liverpool?"

"Magic charms and spells and stuff," the big black tom told him, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there are griffins guardin' the high sanctuary vaults. And then you gotta find yer way through. Liverpool is many skylengths of miles under Juneau deep underground. You'd die of starvation tryin' ter get your tail outta there, even if you steal the something in there."

Nightkit sat back down and thought about this while Badgerstripe read his newspaper, the _Daily Warrior_. Nightkit had learned from Bristle that Twolegs and cats liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult since he had never had so many questions in his life.

But it seemed that like Daniel, Badgerstripe didn't mind being interrupted when he looked amusingly at a breaching whale that Nightkit pointed to. He made a low yet friendly comment on the whale before reading the newspaper again.

"The Government of Warriors messin' things up. Yet again," Badgerstripe mumbled, turning the page.

"There's a Government of Warriors?" Nightpaw asked, before he could stop himself. He heard about a Government of the United States with Barak Obama as the President, but he had never heard of a Government of Warriors before.

"Yeah," Badgerstripe answered. "They wanted Silverstar to be the President, but he would never leave the Forest, so ol' Fudgepelt Fudge got to be the President. I swear that he's a loony if I ever saw one. So he bombards Silverstar with owls every morning, askin' for advice."

"But what does a Government of Warriors _do_?" Nightkit asked, wanting to learn more about the world he wanted to explore so much.

"Well, all they have to do is to keep our world and keeping this from those kittypets: that there are still warriors all around America."

"Why, though?"

"Why? _Why? _Great StarClan, Nightkit, everyone would wanna use magic solutions for their problems. Nope, we're better off as solitary survivors."

At the moment, the boat knocked soothingly into the dock wall. Badgerstripe folded up his newspaper, put it in his bag, and clambered up the stone steps onto the street with Nightkit scampering behind him.

Humans passing by stared a lot at Badgerstripe and even gave a scream while running off as they padded through the little urban area to the station. The little black kit couldn't blame them, for not only was the giant black tom bigger than any other cat ever but he kept pointing his tail at normal things like skateboards or Nintendo Wiis and calling loudly, "Hey, Nightkit, look at this! Twolegs are so crazy! Making transport and fun like this!"

"Hey, Badgerstripe," mewed Nightkit, wheezing a little as he dashed to keep up. "Didn't you say on the boat that there are _griffins _at Liverpool?"

"Well, only that I've heard," Badgerstripe replied. "Hell, I'd like to have a griffin one day."

Nightkit gulped, hearing about these creatures of a mix of an eagle and a lion. "You'd _like _to have one?"

"Wanted one ever since I was a kit. But they're misjudged critters. Very misjudged indeed."

They reached the station at last and there was a train to Juneau in five minutes. Badgerstripe, who didn't understand Twolegs or "Twoleg money" as he called it, gave the bills to Nightkit so he could buy their tickets from the confused seller.

Twolegs and their pets stared more than ever at them on the train. Badgerstripe took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like an aqua-blue coat.

"So yeh still got yer letter, kid?" the giant cat asked as he counted the stitches. Nightkit nodded and took the scroll envelope out of his new red bag. "Good. There's a list there of everything yeh need."

Nodding again, Nightkit unfolded a second piece of paper he was too excited to notice from the night before, and read:

_The Forest, School Of Warriors_

_UNIFORM_

_First-year apprentices will have need of:_

_1. Three sets of plain capes. They must be black._

_2. One plain pointed hat for day wear. It must be black._

_3. One pair of protective mittens. They can be either snake-skin or anything like it._

_4. One winter cape. It must be black with blue-gray bindings._

_Please note that all cats' capes should have name tags._

_COURSE BOOKS_

_All apprentices should or must already have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard Book of Hexes (Grade 1) by Hawkeyes Goshawk_

_A History of Warriorism by Midnight Bagshot_

_Wilderness Theory by Alderfang Waffling_

_A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Swiftfeather Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs by Sporeleaf Spore_

_Magical Wafts and Potions by Jaggedbite Jigger_

_Amazing Animals and Their Locations by Newtwater Scamander_

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defense by Thorntalon Trimble_

_OTHER EQUIPMENT_

_1 tail-wand_

_1 pot (pallet, standard size 2)_

_1 set of glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope set_

_1 brass scales_

_Cats may also bring an owl, ferret, or frog._

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN SET OF WINGS._

"Are we gonna buy all this in Juneau?" Nightkit wondered aloud.

"If yeh know where to go," Badgerstripe replied, purring down at him.

**...**

Nightkit had never been to the capital of Alaska before even with Daniel being friendly and even though Badgerstripe seemed to know where they go, the huge warrior was not used to getting there in a normal manner. He got stuck in the ticket barrier in the station, roaring so loudly that he scared the Twoleg they were paying, and grumbled loudly that the seats were too small and the trains were too slow.

"Twolegs! How do they live without magic?" he growled as they climbed up a crashed escalator that led up to a busy street lined with shops. Seeing a Twoleg kit staring at him curiously, he grunted, "What're yeh lookin' at?"

Badgerstripe was so massive that he parted the crowd easily since they scurried away from him; Nightkit could follow him easily this way. They passed book and music stores, pizza restaurants and movie theatres, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a tail-wand. This was just a common street full of common Twolegs just walking their common dogs with a few stray cats.

Could there really be piles of warrior gold hidden miles underneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and wings? Is this just some sick joke that the Dursley cats had cooked up?

_No way that would happen, _the voice from earlier reassured him with gentleness. Even though Nightkit had only recently met the gigantic cat, he couldn't help but to trust Badgerstripe.

"Well, here it is," Badgerstripe was meowing, coming to a stop. "The Dripping Pot. It's a well-known bar."

It was a small and soiled bar. Nightkit wouldn't notice it there if Badgerstripe didn't point at it with his tail. The Twolegs and their dogs (plus with some cats) hurrying by didn't even take a quick look at it. Their eyes skimmed from the large book shop on one side to the clothes shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Dripping Pot at all.

Nightkit got a strange feeling that only he and Badgerstripe could see it. Before he could point this out, Badgerstripe nudged him inside by pushing his rear with his muzzle to scoot him inside.

The Dripping Pot was sure shadowy and scruffy even for being a well-known bar. A few old she-cats were sitting in a corner, lapping up minute glasses of strawberry wine. One of them was smoking a long pipe and Nightkit could tell that smoking wasn't usual for cats. A Munchkin cat with a cowboy hat was talking to the old bartender, who was black-furred with a grizzled muzzle and looked like a tapir. The low hum of babble stopped when the two other black cats padded in.

Everyone seemed to know Badgerstripe already, for they waved to him with their tails and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "Greetings, Badgerstripe. Would you like the usual drink?"

"Sorry, Panther, but not today. I'm on Forest business and I'm takin' Nightkit here to get supplies for school," Badgerstripe mewed proudly, clapping his large paw on Nightkit's head and making Nightkit fall to the ground and making him squeaking with surprise.

"Great StarClan," Panther murmured, looking closely at Nightkit. "Could it...could it be?" The Dripping Pot had unexpectedly gone totally motionless and quiet. "Bless my whiskers... Nightkit Potter...what an honor."

He hurried out from behind the slab, rushed toward Nightkit and pressed him muzzle to the kit's head, tears of joy appearing in his eyes. "Welcome back, Mr. Potter. Welcome back."

Nightkit didn't know what to say right away; every cat looked around at him. The old gray she-cat with the pipe was puffing on it without seeing it out while Badgerstripe was smiling happily. Then there was a great scuff of chairs and, in the next moment, Nightkit found himself brushing pelts with every cat in the Dripping Pot.

There were mews of "I am Duckwing Crockford, Mr. Nightkit Potter. I can't believe I'm meeting you at last," "So proud, Potter. I'm just so proud," and "I always wanted to meet you since I'm all of a quiver."

"Delighted to meet you, Mr. Nightkit Potter. Diggle's the name. Tinystep Diggle."

"Hey, wait a minute! I've seen you before!" Nightkit exclaimed, as Tinystep's cowboy hat fell off in excitement. "You dipped your head to me once in the vet's office."

"After all this time, he remembers me from the Cutter!" Tinystep squealed, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that, everyone? He remembers me!" Nightkit brushed pelts with other cats again and again; Duckwing Crockford kept coming back for more.

A pale brown tabby-&-white young tomcat (a European Shorthair) padded his way forward, very apprehensively. Nightkit could see that one of the tom's eyes was twitching.

"Quailflight Quirrell!" Badgerstripe chuckled, pushing Nightkit gently forward. "Quailflight will be one of your mentors at the Forest, kid. He'll be yer Defense Against The Dark Arts mentor at school."

"Nice to meet you," Nightkit mewed, dipping his head towards this cat.

The pale brown tabby nodded his head shakily to Nightkit and stammered as if he was shocked by an electric eel, "N-N-Nightkit Potter, I c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you. And I will be y-y-your mentor of that said s-s-subject. N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He giggled nervously as he went on, "You'll be g-getting all your utensils, I presume? I h-have to p-pick up a new b-book on Bigfoot m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought of it.

But the other cats wouldn't let Quailflight keep Nightkit to himself; it took approximately ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Badgerstripe finally made himself heard over the chattering. "We gotta go and we have a lot to buy. Let's go, Nightkit."

Duckwing licked Nightkit's ear one more time and Badgerstripe led him through the saloon and out into a small walled courtyard where there was nothing but a garbage can and several weeds. Badgerstripe looked down at Nightkit and smiled kindheartedly at him.

"Told yeh yeh're famous! Even poor ol' Quailflight was tremblin' ter meet ya, yet he's tremblin' all the time."

"Is he always that anxious?"

"Yep. Poor guy since he's got a bright mind. He was okay while he studied books but then he took a year off to get some actual experience... Some say he met Bigfoot at Mount McKinley and there was a nasty spot o' trouble with a vampire. Since then, he was never the same cat he once was. He's even scared of the apprentices and scared of his own subject. Now where's me staff?"

Nightkit felt questions splashing around in his head as Badgerstripe counted bricks in the wall above the trash can. "Three up...two across..." he muttered. "Okay, then. Stand back."

He tapped the wall three more times with the point of his staff. The brick he touched quivered and it wriggled. In the middle, a small hole appeared and it grew wider and wider; a second later, they were in front of an arch big enough even for Badgerstripe to pass, an arch onto a cobble road that twisted and turned out of sight.

Badgerstripe looked down at Nightkit, smiled at him, and purred, "Welcome, Nightkit. To Dragon Alley."

He grinned even more at Nightkit's surprise; they stepped right through the archway. The young black cat looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the arch disappear instantaneously back into rock-solid wall.

The golden sun shone brilliantly on a stack of bronze pots right outside the bordering shop. Pots: Every Size: Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver: Self-Stirring, told a sign dangling over them. "Yeah, you'll need one of those things," Badgerstripe told him. "But we gotta get yer money out of Liverpool first."

Nightkit wished he had about eight more eyes just like a spider; He turned his head around in every single direction as they padded up the road, trying to look at everything at the same time: the shops, the things outside the shops, the cats doing their shopping. A round ginger she-cat outside an Apothecary was shaking her head in exasperation as they passed, meowing, "Griffin stomach for sixteen Sickles an ounce. They must have bees in their brains..."

A low, soft hooting came from a shadowy shop with a sign saying Eyelets Owl Emporium: Burrowing, Elf, Barn, Great Gray, and Snowy; Nightkit could also see several owls not from America and other flying creatures like bats. Several kits at his age had their muzzles pressed against a window with what looked like golden eagle wings in it.

"Look at this!" Nightkit heard a little white kit squeal, "It's the new Icarus Three Thousand, the fastest set of wings ever!"

There were shops selling capes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Nightkit didn't see before, windows stacked with barrels of lizard spleens and fish eyes, shaking piles of magic books, quills, and rolls of scrolls, potion bottles, globes of the moon...

"There it is, kid: Liverpool," Badgerstripe's voice knocked him back into focus.

They already reached a snow-white building that loomed over the other petite shops. Standing beside its gleaming bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was... "Yep, that's a monkey," Badgerstripe meowed, pointing to a brown animal walking by as they approached the doors.

The brown monkey was just a head taller than Nightkit; it had a dark clever face, a pointed beard not normally found on a monkey, and, Nightkit seemed to notice, a very long tail. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

"See?" Badgerstripe told Nightkit after they read this strange poem. "Yeh'd get really crazy to rob it."

A couple of snub-nosed monkeys bowed to them through the silver doors and they padded into an immense granite hall. Around a hundred more monkeys of different species were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, and examining costly stones through specs. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, but more monkeys were showing cats in and out of those. Badgerstripe and Nightkit padded right in front of the main counter.

"'Mornin'," Badgerstripe greeted a black howler monkey. "We've come here to take some money outta Mr. Nightkit Potter's account."

"Ah," said the monkey, gazing at Nightkit's scar. "So do you have his key, sir?"

"Yep. I got it here somewhere," Badgerstripe meowed.

He started emptying the pockets from his cloak onto the counter, scattering a pawful of stale dog food over the monkey's book of numbers, making the monkey wrinkle his nose at this. Nightkit watched the proboscis monkey to the right weighing a mound of rubies as big as lustrous coals.

"Aha! Here's the lil' devil," Badgerstripe finally meowed while holding up a tiny golden key in his mouth.

The monkey looked at it. "Very well."

"And I've got a letter here from Silverstar," Badgerstripe went on importantly, throwing out his chest in a proud manner. Then he added in a whispering tone, "It's about the You-Know-What in Vault You-Know-Which One."

The monkey looked at the letter very closely, handed it back to the giant tom, and said again, "Very well. Zagorsk! Take these cats to both described vaults!"

Zagorsk was a brown-&-white capuchin monkey and he was skipping a little as he ran forward on hind legs. Once Badgerstripe packed all the kibble back in his cloak, he and Nightkit followed Zagorsk toward one of the doors leading off the corridor.

Zagorsk held the door open for the two cats to go through. Nightkit, who was expecting more marble, was surprised; all three creatures were in a narrow stone passageway lit with burning torches. It sloped precipitously downhill and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Zagorsk whistled and a little cart came careering up the tracks toward them. They climbed in, even though Badgerstripe go in with difficulty, and they were off.

At first, they were just hurtling through a labyrinth of twisting paths. Nightkit tried to remember these: left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible to remember all those directions. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Zagorsk wasn't steering.

Nightkit's eyes stung as the freezing air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a flash of golden feathers at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a griffin, but it was too late, for they fell even deeper, passing an underground lake where vast stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and ground.

"Hey, Badgerstripe," Nightkit called over the racket of the cart. "What's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"

"Stalactite has a 'ct' and stalagmite has a 'gm'," Badgerstripe answered. "But PLEASE don't ask questions just yet, kid. I feel like I'm gonna hurl." His eyes did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Badgerstripe got out and vomited all over the railway, earning him a glare from nearby monkeys.

Zagorsk unlocked the door and a lot of green smoke came billowing out; as it cleared, Nightkit gasped with amazement. Inside were loads of gold coins, columns of silver, and lots of little bronze Knuts. "Yeh didn't think yer parents would leave yeh with now, now did yeh?" the big black tomcat purred, recovering from vomiting.

All of this treasure was Nightkit's money; it was an incredible sight. The Dursley cats couldn't have known about this or they'd steal it from him faster than a frog could blink and flick its tongue out. How could they complain how much Nightkit cost Daniel to keep? And all the time, there had been a fortune belonging to just him, buried deep under Juneau.

Badgerstripe helped Nightkit shovel some of it into the red bag. He explained the currency, for Galleons were big gold coins and there were seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle. They got a few more coins in and the black warrior meowed, "Okay, that'll be enough for school and we'll keep the rest safe for ya."

He turned to Zagorsk and mewed, "Vault seven hundred and seventy seven, please. And can we go more slowly?"

"One speed only," the capuchin monkey replied.

"What's the You-Know-What vault?" Nightkit asked.

"Can't tell you that," Badgerstripe told him without explanation. "It's very secret. Top secret. It's Forest business. Silverstar trusted me with this mission."

So all three of them went even deeper now and gathered speed despite being one speed only. The air became colder as they hurtled round tight corners; they went rattling over a tunnel gorge, and Nightkit propped over the side to see what was at the bottom. But Badgerstripe groaned with a nauseous air and pulled him back by the tail with his teeth.

When they reached Vault seven hundred and seventy seven, Nightkit gazed at it with confusion. It had no lock or door or elevator.

"Stand back," Zagorsk told the two cats notably. He stroked the door smoothly with his long prehensile tail and it simply melted away. Then he added cunningly, "If anyone but a Liverpool monkey tried doing that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there for quite a long while."

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside there?" Nightkit asked him.

"Oh, about every ten years," the monkey replied with a nasty grin on his face.

Something really unexpected had to be inside this security vault (Nightkit was very sure about this) and he leaned forward eagerly, hoping to see magnificent jewels and ornaments at the very least...but at first he thought it was empty. But he noticed a small brown bag sitting right in front of them.

Badgerstripe picked it up in his teeth and tucked it deep inside his coat, meowing, "There ya go, little fella." Nightkit wanted to know so badly what it was, but he thought it would be rude, so he didn't ask. "Don't tell anyone. Now don't talk to me on the way back. It's best if I keep my mouth shut."

One wild cart ride later, the two cats stood blinking in the sunlight outside Liverpool. Nightkit didn't know where to go now that he had a sack full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his entire life; in fact, he had more money than even his owner.

**...**

"We might as well get your cape, cloak, and other stuff," Badgerstripe rumbled, nodding toward Morningfur's Capes for All Occasions. "Hey, Nightkit, would ya mind if I slipped off for a bag in the Dripping Pot? I hate those carts at Liverpool." He did still look a bit sick, so Nightkit went into Madam Morningfur's shop on his own, feeling anxious.

Morningfur was a squat, smiling gray-&-white she-cat dressed in a light purple cape. "Are you going to the Forest, dear?" she greeted him when Nightkit started to speak. "I got the things here. Another young tom is being fitted up just now, in fact."

_Good. I'll be able to meet a new friend, _Nightkit thought happily as he went to the back of the shop, where a black-&-silver tabby British Shorthair was sitting on a footstool while a second tortoiseshell she-cat pinned up his long black cape. Morningfur stood Nightkit on top of a stool next to him, slipped a long black cloth over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.

"Greetings there," the British Shorthair meowed, his voice like ice. "Are you going to the Forest, too?"

"Yes," Nightkit replied.

"My father's in the shop next door buying my books and Mother's up the street looking at tail-wands," the tom meowed in a drawling bored voice as if he didn't hear Nightkit. "Then I'll drag those two off to look for sets of racing wings and I don't even wanna know why first year warriors can't have them. I guess I could bully Father into getting me some and I'll sneak them in."

Nightkit just gave a snort; this cat reminded him very much of Tubby: bullying.

He stopped thinking as the black-&-silver tabby British Shorthair meowed to him in a haughty tone, "So do YOU have your own set of wings?"

"No."

"You ever play Air Ball?"

"No again," Nightkit meowed, feeling even less certain and feeling even more mindless each and every minute. He even didn't know about what Air Ball was and he didn't know what the wings had to do with it.

The black-&-silver tom snorted and meowed on, "Well, _I _do. Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my Clan, and I must say that I agree completely. Do YOU know what Clan you'll be in yet?"

Nightkit shook his head a third time, not knowing what a Clan was and he began to feel as if he were any slower than a slug.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they?" the other kitten meowed confidently. "But I know I'll be in ViperClan. All of my entire family has been in that Clan. Imagine being put into BadgerClan! I think I'd leave if I were put in there, wouldn't you?"

"Uh..." Nightkit meowed, feeling that this kit's speech was getting even as boring as listening to his uncle's ranting about Daniel's science center. He wanted to say something very interesting so that the conversation would go on more smoothly.

Suddenly, the British Shorthair kitten exclaimed scornfully, "Wow, look at that panther!" He was pointing his tail at Badgerstripe, who was outside the shop, smiling at Nightkit, and pointing his paw at two bowls of cat-friendly ice cream; Nightkit supposed that it meant that he couldn't come in with food. Plenty of Twoleg stores had that kind of rule.

Nightkit lifted his tail in the air and explained, "His name's Badgerstripe. He's the gatekeeper of the Forest." He was happy that he finally knew something that this kitten didn't know about.

"Oh yeah, I've heard about that guy," the British Shorthair sniffed. "Isn't he like a servant?"

"No. Like I said before, he's the gatekeeper of the Forest," Nightkit retorted. _Strike that, Nightkit, _he told himself. _This guy's not gonna be a good friend. _And Nightkit knew that he was beginning to like this kit even less by the second.

"Yes, I've heard that all the time. I've even heard he's a sort of a_ scoundrel. _You know...lives in a hut on the school grounds, gets himself drunk every now and then, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his nest? Does that ring a bell?"

Nightkit growled coldly, "No. I think he's great."

"_Do _you?" retorted the kitten with a sneer in his tone, his cold gray eyes narrowing. "So why in the name of StarClan is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead," Nightkit muttered shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this cat. It was better to keep his jaws shut and not tell him about all that the evil bear had done to his life.

Then the British Shorthair laughed at him, making the young Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix growl angrily. "Oh, I'm sorry," the kitten apologized with no hint of an apology in his voice at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

Nightkit wanted to get off his seat and give this kit a cuffing on the head, but he couldn't while he was getting his cape tried on; besides, he would get into big trouble. So he sat there, stared straight into this kit's unfriendly gray eyes, and hissed, "They were warriors, if that's what you're thinking."

"Well, I don't think they should let the other sort in, do you?" the British Shorthair kitten sneered. "They're just not the same as you and I. They've never been brought up to know our ways and follow in our pawsteps. Some of them have never even heard of the Forest until they get the letter. I think they should just keep it in the old warrior families. Plus, I think it's really great to be pure British Shorthair and not having any other dirty breed blood in my veins. What's your family name and breed, anyway?"

Furious, Nightkit was about to give a sharp retort, but Morningfur then mewed, "That's you done, my dear," and Nightkit, not feeling sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the other kit, hopped down from the footstool.

"See you at the Forest," the kitten sneered before leaping away.

Nightkit was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream that Badgerstripe had bought for him and it was chocolate chip cookie dough. "What's up?" the giant cat mewed.

"Nothing," Nightkit lied. They stopped to buy rolls of scrolls and quills and Nightkit cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote with it. But when they had left the shop, he mewed, "Hey, Badgerstripe? What's Air Ball?"

Badgerstripe shook his head with mock despair. "Great StarClan, Nightkit! I keep forgettin' how little ya know. Not knowin' about Air Ball!"

"Don't make me feel worse," Nightkit whined, hanging his head and telling Badgerstripe about the British Shorthair kitten in Morningfur's. "...then he told me that cats from kittypet families shouldn't be allowed in!"

"Kid, you're not _from _a kittypet family," meowed Badgerstripe in a reassuring way. "If he knew who you _were._ He'd be knowin' your name if his parents are warriors. You saw how everyone in the Dripping Pot acted when they saw ya. Anyway, what the heck does he know about it? Some of the best warriors I ever knew were the ones with magic in 'em in a very long line of kittypets! Look at your mom! Look what she had for a sister!"

Nightkit felt a little better at that and he still decided to ask the question and mewed, "So what IS Air Ball?"

Badgerstripe chuckled, ruffled the fur on the kit's head with his paw, and purred, "It's a warrior's sport and it's _our_ sport. It's kinda like basketball or whatever you call it and it's in the Warriors World. I mean, everyone knows about AirBall; it's played with wings strapped onto your back and there are four important balls. But it's kinda hard to explain it all."

"What about ViperClan and BadgerClan?" Nightkit went on, feeling that Badgerstripe was named after one of these Clans.

"Those are the school Clans." Badgerstripe got up, licked his fore paw, and swiped it over his ear. "There are four of 'em all together. Everyone says that BadgerClan cats are nothin' but sissies."

Nightkit looked gloomily at the shops around him and muttered, "I bet I'll be in BadgerClan. I'll tell you that."

Badgerstripe chuckled again and replied darkly, "Well, I'll tell ya somethin': it's better to be in BadgerClan than be in ViperClan. There's not a single warrior in ViperClan that didn't go bad. Even You-Know-Who was in ViperClan."

"Red...You-Know-Who went to the Forest?"

"Yep. Moons ago."

Later, they got Nightkit's school books called Blooming and Weeds, where the bookshelves were piled to the ceiling with books as large as boulders tied in leather; books the size of dollar coins in covers of silk; books full of odd symbols and a few books with nothing at all. Even Tubby, who never learned to (and never wanted to) read anything, would want to get his paws on some of these.

Badgerstripe had to drag Nightkit away from one book called _Curses and Cures (Amaze Your Friends and Confuse Your Foes with the Latest Revenges: Fur Loss, Soft-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) _by Professor Viridianeyes.

"I was trying to find out how to curse Tubby," Nightkit mewed innocently.

"Well, I'm not sayin' it's not a good idea, but you can't use magic in the kittypet world except in special conditions," Badgerstripe warned him gravelly. "And anyways, you couldn't work any of them yet. You'll need a lot more study before you get there."

He also wouldn't let Nightkit buy a solid gold cauldron either ("It says pallet on your list, kid."). But they did get a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a foldup brass telescope.

Then they visited the Apothecary, which was remarkable enough to make up for its awful stench, a mix of mold and rotted mice. Buckets of oily stuff stood on the floor; pots of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; packs of feathers, threads of fangs, and cut claws hung from the ceiling. In there, Nightkit himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and tiny black beetle eyes.

Once outside the Apothecary, Badgerstripe checked Nightkit's list again. "There's just your tail-wand left. Oh yeah, I still haven't got you a birthday present."

Nightkit felt himself go red with awkwardness and, as if reading his mind, Badgerstripe added, "I know, I know. I don't have to buy you anything, but I want to. I'll get ya an animal; not a frog 'cause you'll get laughed at, not a ferret since they make me sneeze, but I'll get ya an owl. They're useful for carrying mail."

Twenty minutes later, they left the Eyelets Owl Emporium, which was dark and full of rustling and flickering jewel-bright eyes. Nightkit was now carrying a large cage that held a beautiful female owl that was a cross of Barn Owl and Snowy Owl. This owl had a white body with the buff coloring of a Barn Owl on her back, but she had spots like a Snowy Owl; plus, she had the normal black eyes of a Barn Owl. But right now, she was fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stuttering his thanks.

"Ah, don't mention it," Badgerstripe grunted cheerfully. "I suppose you've not had a whole lotta presents from them Dursley cats. And Happy Birthday again! Just Olive's place left now. It's the only place for tail-wands."

A magic tail-wand. This was what Nightkit had been really looking forward to.

**...**

The last shop was slim and untidy; peeling gold letters over the door read Olive's: Makers of Fine Tail-Wands since 493 B.C. A single tail-wand lay on a lilac cushion in the dirty window.

A chiming bell rang somewhere in the lowest point of the shop as they padded inside. It was a tiny place, bare except for a lone, spindly chair that Badgerstripe sat on to wait. Nightkit felt oddly as though he had entered a very firm library; he swallowed a batch of new questions that occurred to him and looked at the thousands of thin boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the fur on his spine bristled. The very dirt and stillness in here seemed to prickle with some secret magic.

A sudden noise made Nightkit jump. Badgerstripe probably jumped, too, because there was a noisy crunching noise and he got rapidly off the spindly chair. An old dark gray tabby-&-white tom was standing before them, his wide, pale gray eyes shining like moons through the murk of the shop.

"Hello," Nightkit muttered clumsily yet civilly.

"Ah yes," the old cat rasped, smiling. "Yes, I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Nightkit Potter." It wasn't a question at all. "You have your mother's green eyes. It seems only yesteryear that she was in here, buying her first tail-wand. Six kit-steps long, swishy, and made from willow. Nice tail-wand for Charms work."

Olive padded closer to Nightkit. The little black kit wished he would blink; those gray eyes were getting a bit creepy. "Your father, on the other paw, had a mahogany tail-wand. Seven kit-steps. Flexible. A little more power and excellent for Transfiguration. Your father loved it. It's the tail-wand that chooses the warrior, of course."

Olive had come so close that he and Nightkit were almost nose to nose. The black kitten could see himself reflected in those cloudy eyes. "And that's where..." The old gray tabby touched the lightning scar on Nightkit's forehead with his long tail. "I'm sorry to say I sold the tail-wand that did it," he meowed tenderly. "Nine-and-a-half tail-lengths. Yew. Great tail-wand, very great, and in the wrong paws. Well, if I'd known what that tail-wand was going out into the world to do..."

He shook his head and then, to Nightkit's relief, spotted Badgerstripe. "Badgerstripe Hagrid! How nice to see you again. Oak, twelve kit-steps, rather supple, wasn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"It was good. But it got destroyed when you were exiled?"

"Er...yes, they did, yes. I got the pieces, though."

"But you don't _use _them?"

"Oh, no, sir," Badgerstripe replied, twirling his staff around carefully.

"Hold out your tail. That's it." He measured Nightkit's tail from tip to base. As he measured, he meowed, "Every tail-wand has a heart of a powerful magical matter, Mr. Potter. We use dragon horns, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of griffins. No two tail-wands are the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another warrior's tail-wand."

Nightkit suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own while Olive was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"This shall do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter, try this one. It is made of beech wood and griffin heartstring. It is five kit-steps long and is nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

So Nightkit slipped the tail-wand onto his tail and gave his tail a flick while feeling stupid, but it just caused the other tail-wands to fall from the shelves.

"Apparently not," Olive croaked as Nightkit slipped the tail-wand off of his tail. Then the old dark gray tabby cat handed him another one, rasping, "Perhaps this? Maple, phoenix feather, whippy, and four and a half kit-steps long. Try!"

So Nightkit once again slipped this tail-wand onto his tail and waved it around. Then the vase right next to him shattered, making him jump.

"No, no. Definitely not. But no matter," Olive rasped again as Nightkit took the tail-wand off. Then he came back with another tail-wand as he meowed, "Now this one is a rare combination: holly and phoenix feather, seven kit-steps, nice and lithe."

Nightkit took the tail-wand, put it onto his tail, and gave it a wave in the air. He suddenly felt great gentle warmness spread out throughout his entire tail, brought it swishing down through the sandy air and a torrent of crimson and gold sparks shot from the end like fire, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.

Badgerstripe was howling happily and Olive purred, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good!" He took the tail-wand carefully off of Nightkit's tail, put it in a bag, and croaked, "Hmmm... Curious...curious..."

"What's curious?" Nightkit mewed.

Olive fixed Nightkit with his pale stare. "I memorize every tail-wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. _Every single tail-wand._ The phoenix whose tail feather is in your tail-wand gave another feather, just one other feather. It is curious without a doubt that you are destined for this tail-wand when its brother gave you that scar."

Nightpaw tilted his head to one side. "You mean Red Helmet?"

"Shh! We do not speak the name!" Olive hissed. Then, gently, he added, "I think we will be expecting great things from you, Mr. Potter. After all, He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named did great things. Terrible, yes, but great."

Nightkit shivered; he couldn't be too sure he liked Olive too much or not. He paid seven gold Galleons for his tail-wand, and Olive bowed them from his shop before tapping his tail onto his scar.

**...**

The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Nightkit and Badgerstripe made their way back down Dragon Alley, back through the wall, and back through the now-empty Dripping Pot. Nightkit didn't speak too much as they padded down the street; he didn't notice how much cats gaped at them on the station, loaded as they were with all their packages, with the mixed owl asleep in her cage. Up another escalator, out into the station they went.

Nightkit only realized where they were when Badgerstripe tapped him on the shoulder with his tail. "We better get goin' shortly. Let's get ya a bite to eat before your train leaves," he meowed.

Just like the charm of a stray dog, he had managed to persuade a Burger King worker to give Nightkit and himself hamburgers and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Nightkit kept giving all sorts of looks around; everything now seemed to be completely different.

"Nightkit, you okay, buddy? You've been quiet since at Olive's," the giant black cat told him.

Nightkit didn't know how to explain himself. He just had the best birthday of his young life and yet...

He chewed his hamburger while tossing away the pickles for the pigeons to eat, trying to find the words. "Why am I famous? All those warrior cats believe me to be special. But I don't know magic at all. How can they expect great things from me? I'm famous and I can't remember why. I don't know what happened when my parents died."

Badgerstripe leaned across the table, giving him a very kind smile on his panther-like face. "Don't you worry, Nightkit. You'll learn. Every warrior starts at the beginning at Forest and you'll be just fine. Just be yerself, kid. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, and it's hard. But yeh'll have a good ol' time at the Forest. I did and I still do. Plus, about You-Know-Who vanished...THAT'S why yeh're famous."

Badgerstripe helped Nightkit sneak onto the train that would take him back to the Dursley cats, then he handed him an envelope. "This is your ticket for the Forest," he said. "It's on September the first at King's Cross; it's all on your ticket. If you got any problems with the Dursley cats, send me a letter with your owl. She'll know where to find me. And Daniel may be back to his old self, I promise. See ya _really_ soon, Nightkit."

The train pulled out of the station and the little black kitten wanted to watch Badgerstripe until he was out of sight; he leaped into a surprised Twoleg's lap and pressed his muzzle against the window, but he blinked just once and the black warrior had vanished.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat09: So that's all of Dragon Alley. And today is Veterans' Day!**

**Katara: Wow. This must be the longest chapter of any story that I've seen so far! ...except The Courtship. What's Veterans' Day again?**

**AvatarCat09: It's when World War 1 ended and it honors all those who served their country. And thanks! As a reward, I'll surprise you in the next chapter. And this'll be when Ron and Hermione in their cat forms will come onto the screen.**

**Neville: What about me, huh?**

**AvatarCat09: I'm sorry, Neville. You two. (Neville smiles at that)**

**Anyways, just review and you'll receive an American flag, American flag-colored hats, and American flag-colored cupcakes.**

**See ya next time! And Happy Veterans' Day!**


	6. Travel From Platform 7 And A Half

**AvatarCat10: I was starting up on my new FanFic called Warriors: The Searchers and it was a crossover between Monster Rancher and Warriors. ...but so far, there wasn't any reviews on it, even though I already added three chapters to it. So I deleted it.**

**Hermione: Don't worry, AvatarCat. You'll get a review on your other stories, I'm sure that you will.**

**Ron: Yeah, they'll turn up. Just let someone say the disclaimer for now.**

**AvatarCat10: Sure! Hey, Hagrid! You wanna come join us and say the disclaimer?**

**Hagrid: (Comes in, not through the door but busting through the wall) Sure! It's an honor to meet yeh! (To the readers) Why the ruddy hell would anyone keep sayin' tha' he owns Harry Potter and Warriors?**

**AvatarCat10: Thanks, Hagrid. And Katara said she wants to spend time off here to look after Tenzin, so we'll tell her later about what happened. Now let's get a snack and drink and let's get on with the show! Enjoy! (He, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Hagrid sit in the armchairs as Hagrid's chair collapses, so a rock chair is made and they relax)**

**...**

_Travel From Platform Seven And A Half_

Nightkit's last moon with the Dursley cats wasn't all too fun. Tubby was now so frightened of his black-furred cousin that he wouldn't stay in the same room while Aunt Tulip and Uncle Bristle didn't lock up Nightkit in his cage, force him to do anything, or yell at him. In fact, they didn't speak to him at all but acted as if he wasn't there. Only Daniel was happy for Nightkit on being a wildcat.

Badgerstripe was right; Daniel was back to his old self after what happened. But this became depressing even though it really did improve.

The little black tom stayed in his room with his new Barn/Snowy Owl for company. He had decided to name her Katara, a rare name he had discovered in _A History of Warriorism _and one language with the name meant "waterfall." His school books were very exciting indeed. Nightkit would often lie on his belly at night and stay up pretty late, reading his heart out while Katara would often swoop in and out of the window whenever she wanted to. Daniel was more than happy to vacuum in his room since Katara always brought back dead mice and frogs.

Every night before he went to sleep, Nightkit ticked off another day on the calendar, counting down to September the first. _Just counting down till I escape, _he mewed to himself hopefully.

On August 31st, he decided to speak to his aunt and uncle about Daniel getting him to King's Cross station the next day, so he padded down to the living room where they were watching CSI. He let out a meow to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed with fright and waddled quickly from the room.

"Uncle Bristle?" The big gray cat grunted to show he was listening. "Uh, I gotta get to King's Cross tomorrow to go to the Forest."

Uncle Bristle grunted again. "Would it be all right if Daniel gave me a lift?"

Grunt. Nightkit supposed that it meant yes. "Thanks!"

He whirled around and began sprinting to the stairs when he heard Bristle meow grumpily, "It's funny about how to get to a freak wildcat school. Do those magic carpets have holes in them?" Nightkit didn't have a comment about that. "So where is this school, anyways?"

Nightkit just stared at him with confusion, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of Daniel's cup that held papers. "I'm not sure. My ticket says that I just take the train from platform seven and a half," he read aloud.

His aunt and uncle stared at him with distrust. "Platform what?"

"Seven in a half."

"Don't talk baloney," Bristle snapped. "There is no such thing as platform seven and a half!"

"But it's on my ticket," Nightkit meowed.

"Crazy," snarled Uncle Bristle. "Howling mad, the whole lot of them! You'll see in time. You just wait, boy. All right, we'll let Daniel take you to King's Cross. We're going up to Juneau tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."

Wanting to make things friendly now that Daniel was going to take him, Nightkit mewed in a friendly way, "So why are you going to Juneau?"

Bristle snorted at Nightkit since he asked a question, but he just growled, "Well, we're going to the vet, aren't we? We have to get that ruddy pig's tail off of Tubby's head before he goes to Meltings. We don't want others to think of him as a mutant pig!"

**...**

The next dawn, Nightkit woke up at five in the morning, but he couldn't get back to sleep. He was going to a school of wildcats and he hoped to have a great time going to school there. So he sat up and began grooming himself all over since he didn't have to put his cape on right away; he didn't want others to think that Halloween had come early. But he would be able to put it on while on the train.

He checked his Forest school list yet again to make sure he got everything he needed to have, made sure that Katara was shut securely in her cage, and then paced around the room, waiting for Daniel to get up. Nightkit couldn't sleep after that, for he was too excited to catch some more rest.

Two hours later, Nightkit's big, heavy baggage had been loaded into Daniel's van (Aunt Tulip had talked Tubby into sitting next to Nightkit in the traveling cages) and they had set off. They reached King's Cross at half past ten and, soon enough, Daniel put Nightkit's trunk gently onto a wagon and pulled it into the station for him.

Nightkit thought that it was strange that Daniel would do this. He was afraid that Daniel would just kick him away, but Daniel spoke kindly to him. Even though he couldn't understand him entirely, the little black kitten could read his owner's lips. "Well, Snowy. Here we are, then. There seems to be platforms seven and eight, but I don't see any platform seven and a half. I don't think they built it yet. Are you sure it's here?"

Nightkit nodded, feeling rather confused about the directions and yet feeling reassured by the gentle rumbling coming from his owner.

"Okay then. Have a good time at your new school!" Daniel said, hugging the black cat before getting back into his car and driving off. He could see the three Dursley cats laughing at him, but his owner just gave him an encouraging smile and a friendly wave while he backed out from the parking lot.

But as soon as Daniel left, Nightkit was now feeling rather scared and worried; he was attracting a crowd of Twolegs thanks to Katara hooting with wonder. Trying hard not to panic, Nightkit began to think; according to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes to go to get onto the train to the Forest and he had no idea how to do it. He was stuck in the middle of a train station with a trunk he couldn't lift on his own, a bag of warrior money, and a great female owl.

Badgerstripe might have forgotten to tell him something he had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Dragon Alley. The little black kit wondered if he could get his tail-wand out and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms seven and eight. But it wasn't worth the risk. _Now how'll I get to the train?_

At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying. "...packed with kittypets and Twolegs every year... Let's go. It's up ahead."

_Kittypets? Twolegs?_ Nightkit thought with relief as he swung round. The speaker was a plump ginger tabby she-cat with amber eyes who was talking to four tomcats that all had fiery orange pelts. Each cat was pulling a trunk like Nightkit's behind him by a wagon and they had an _owl_.

Heart hammering with relief, Nightkit pulled his wagon hard after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying. "So now what is the platform number, you four?" the ginger she-cat was meowing.

"It's seven and a half!" squealed a small longhaired ginger she-kit as she pranced around her mother. Nightkit purred a little at her silly antics. "Mom, can I go with them? I'll be good!"

"Please be quiet, Leafkit. You're not eleven years old yet," her mother gently scolded her. "Now who's up first? You go first, Sandthorn."

Who appeared to be the oldest tomcat prowled over to platforms seven and eight. He was ginger-furred, of course, but he had unusual curly fur and brown eyeglass-like spots around his eyes. Nightkit observed carefully and trying hard to not blink, but just as the tom reached the dividing wall between the two platforms, a large crowd of Twolegs came swarming in front of him and by the time the last one left, the tom was gone.

_Did he go through the wall, I wonder?_

"All right, Berrytail. It's your turn next," the ginger tabby she-cat meowed, kinking her tail for two ginger toms to come forward. They were so identical that Nightkit couldn't tell which cat was Berrytail.

"Aw, I'm Cherrynose, not Berrytail!" the tom protested.

"You call yourself our mother, mouse-brain?" his twin added. "Can't you see _he's_ Cherrynose and _I'm_ Berrytail?"

The she-cat shook her head and that was that she couldn't believe that she made that mistake. "Sorry, Cherrynose. You go ahead."

The tom nodded and padded on ahead, but he turned to look over his shoulder and meow, "I'm just rattling your antlers, Mom. I really AM Berrytail!"

He went off and the other identical cat followed him, telling him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because he had gone a few seconds later, but how did he do it? Now the third brother was walking vigorously toward the barrier. He was almost there and then, quite unexpectedly, he had vanished.

Now Nightkit felt that there was only one way to get to the train: ask for directions. He had heard from Uncle Bristle that cats love to be solitary and not worry about any other animal. But Badgerstripe had proved to him yesterday that Bristle was wrong; the warrior cats really seem to love to socialize.

"Um, excuse me?" he mewed nervously as he slunk nearer.

The ginger tabby queen turned around to see him coming and, to his surprise, she mewed gently to him, "Hello, dear. Are you off to the Forest, too? Redkit here is new there."

She pointed her tail to the smallest ginger tomcat, who had large paws, short fur, a longer muzzle than a British Shorthair, and blue eyes. He was nodding happily to the longhaired black tomcat. Nightkit supposed that these cats were American Shorthairs_._

"Yes, ma'am," Nightkit stammered politely. "But the problem is that I don't know how to..."

"How to get onto the platform?" she asked him kindly, and Nightkit nodded politely. "Oh, not to worry. You just have to walk straight at the wall between platforms seven and eight. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it and that's very important. Just run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Redkit."

"Good luck!" the little she-kit added cheerfully.

Nightkit dipped his head to them and mewed, "Okay. Thanks!" After they nodded back to him, he pulled his wagon the other way around and stared at the wall; it looked very solid indeed.

He started to pad quickly and nervously toward it; Twolegs jostled him on their way to platforms seven and eight. With a gulp at trying not to be seen, Nightkit began to trot more quickly. He was going to smash right into that wall and then he'd be in a mess; leaning forward to pull the wagon, he broke into a heavy sprint. The wall was coming nearer...he wouldn't stop...the wagon was out of control. He was a foot away and he closed his eyes ready for the crash and...

...nothing happened. He kept on sprinting forward and he opened his eyes. A huge crimson steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with lots of cats. A sign above said _Forest Express, 11:00 a.m_. Nightkit looked around behind him and saw an iron arch where the barrier had been, with the words _Platform Seven And A Half _on it. He made it; he wanted to jump up and down with happiness, but that could wait.

Smoke from the engine drifted over his head while cats of every color wound here and there around each other. Owls hooted to one another in a discontented sort of way over the jabber and the scraping of weighty trunks.

The first few carriages were already packed with cats, some poking their heads out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting (not physically) over seats. Nightkit pulled his wagon off down the platform in search of an empty seat; as he did so, he passed by a squash-faced brown tabby Exotic Shorthair who was mewling, "Grandma, I lost my frog again."

"Oh, Toadkit," he heard the elderly she-cat sigh.

A black-&-white tom with amber eyes was surrounded by a crowd of cats, who were mewing, "Come on, Quicktongue! Show us already!" And the tom did so, opening up a box in between his paws and smiling as something hairy poked its leg out and caused the others to yowl in alarm.

Passing that scene, Nightkit pushed on through the throng until he found an empty booth near the end of the train. He put Katara and her cage inside first and then started to thrust and haul his heavy trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps in his jaws, but he could almost not raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his paw, making him squeak.

"Yo, you need a lift?" One of the ginger-furred twins from earlier had come up from behind him.

As Nightkit nodded politely, the ginger tom turned around and yowled over his shoulder, "Hey, Berrytail! Get your butt over here and help him out!" And with their help, the trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the booth.

"Thanks," Nightkit panted, shaking the extra bit of fur out of his green eyes.

"No problem. It's the least we...hang on. What's that?" one of the twin toms suddenly mewed, pointing his tail at Nightkit's white lightning-shaped scar.

The other cat meowed with pure amazement, "Great StarClan, aren't you him?"

The first cat squeaked with equal amazement, "He really is him! Hey, aren't you him?" he added, pointing his tail again at the scar.

"Who?"

"Nightkit Potter," both cats meowed at the same time, their tails thrashing from side to side with excitement and their eyes were lit up with cheerfulness and astonishment.

Nightkit looked around in confusion as he replied, "Of course it's him." But realizing that they were talking to and about him, he turned back to the two ginger-pelted cats and corrected himself, "I mean, of course I am." Then he gave the two strange cats an awkward smile.

The two ginger tomcats stared at him for quite a few seconds, and Nightkit felt himself turning red underneath his black fur. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.

"Berrytail and Cherrynose, are you still there?"

"Coming, Mom!" With a last amazed look at Nightkit, the twin toms leaped off the train to join up with their family.

Nightkit sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. He was very inquisitive about what was happening about the family, but he didn't want to be found out instantaneously, so he still laid his head low.

"Redkit, dearie, you have a blotch on your muzzle," the plump ginger queen meowed, licking her youngest kit on the nose. But the young tom wriggled free from his mother's washing tongue.

She, however, pulled him back and started washing his muzzle again, making him protest, "Aw, Mom! Get off of me!"

One of the twin ginger toms was sneering, "Aww, does cute wittle Redkit have something on his cute wittle nosie?"

"Shut up, mouse-brain," Redkit muttered.

After grooming her son, the round ginger tabby queen looked around them and asked her sons, "Where's Sandthorn at?"

As soon as the question left her throat, the curly-haired ginger tom from earlier came padding to them into sight. He had already changed into his waving black Forest cape, and Nightkit was interested to see a red and gold badge on his chest with the letter _P _on it.

"I'm here. And I can't stay long, Mother," he meowed to her. "But I'm up front; the prefects have got two booths to themselves and..."

"Sandthorn, are you a prefect already?" meowed one of the twin ginger toms with an air of pretending great surprise. "You should have said something. We had no idea."

"Hold the mayo. I think I remember him saying something about it," meowed the other cat. And they were now meowing stuff like:

"It was either once..."

"Or twice..."

"A minute..."

"All greenleaf..."

"Oh, shut up," Sandthorn snapped.

The two toms stopped asking their brother lots of questions, but they did turn to their mother and one of them asked her, "Well, how in the name of StarClan come he gets to have a new cape?"

Their mother licked her oldest son on the cheek and purred affectionately, "It's because he's a prefect now. He's the third one in the family so far! Have a good term," she added to Sandthorn, licking him on the cheek again. "Send me an owl once you get there." After receiving one more lick on the cheek, the curly-haired tom turned around and padded away.

She watched him go and turned around onto her twin kits and meowed to them in a warning tone, "Now you two behave yourselves this year, you hear me? If I receive one more owl about how you've...destroyed a table or something..."

"Destroyed a table? Whatever do you mean?"

"We've never done that. Thanks for the idea, Mom!"

"It's not funny, you two," the ginger tabby she-cat hissed. "Do your dear mother a favor and look after Redkit while you're at school."

One of the twin ginger toms ruffled Redkit's head with his paw and meowed in a teasing way, "Don't worry, Mom. Cute wittle Reddie will be safe with us!"

But Redkit struggled under his brother's paw, leaped away, and muttered again, "Shut up, mouse-brain." He was half their height and there was a clump of damp fur on his muzzle where his mother licked to get the dirt off.

But just before they got on, one of the ginger toms turned around to face his mother and tell her, "Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we saw on the train just around a few minutes ago?"

Nightkit crouched even lower below the window, careful not to be seen looking at them, as he heard the ginger tabby queen meow, "Who did you see?"

"Well, you know that longhaired black kitten who asked us for directions?"

"Yes. Who is he, though?"

"It's Nightkit Potter!" they both mewed at the same time.

Then, to Nightkit's amusement, he could see and hear the little ginger kit named Leafkit bouncing up and down as she squealed, "Mama, I wanna see Nightkit! Can I? Can I?"

However, thankfully, the ginger tabby queen licked the top of her daughter's head and purred, "No, Leafkit. You've already seen the poor mite once, and he's not some kind of rare snake to be seen in a zoo." Turning to one of her older kits, she asked him, "Are you really sure, Berrytail? How do you know that?"

Berrytail just replied, "We just asked him and he showed us his scar. And the legend was true; the scar DID look like lightning!"

"Oh, that poor thing," their mother cooed at that comment, her voice softening. "I've always wondered why he was alone. You know how polite he was when he asked us for direction to the platform."

"Well, do you wonder about asking him about what that demon bear looked like?" Berrytail asked her.

But his mother's amber eyes blazed with some kind of irritation that would make a badger cower as she suddenly snapped sternly, "Don't you dare ask him, Berrytail. I absolutely forbid you two to ask him. That poor young child doesn't need second reminders on his first day of school!" When the whistle blew as they nodded, she licked each of her older kits over the ears and meowed, "Hurry and good-bye!"

The three tomcats immediately ran to the train with the two twin toms leaping on board to grab their brother in their jaws and hauled him on board. As soon as the three toms went on board, Leafkit began to wail with indignation.

Then the twin toms began mewing stuff to her kindly like "Hey, don't cry, Leafkit! We'll send you lots of owls when we get there!" and even "We could just send you a table!"

"Cherrynose!" their mother hissed.

"Just joking, Mom!" Cherrynose protested.

The train began to move slowly and Nightkit could see the ginger toms' mother waving her tail to them and their little sister, half laughing and half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved her front paw in a form of good-bye. He gave a little purr of laughter and amusement at seeing the kit get up and pad back to her mother as if nothing happened.

Houses flashed past the window and Nightkit felt a great leap of excitement jump in his belly. He didn't know where he was going to and he didn't know what laid on the horizon, but he felt that it was going to be better than the old life that he was leaving behind.

The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest ginger tom with blue eyes came in. "Excuse me. Can I come in?" he asked, pointing his front paw at the seat opposite the black-pelted kit. "Everywhere else is full."

Nightkit remembered the attitude of the black-&-silver tabby tom at Dragon Alley and saw that he wasn't good enough to be a friend. But this kitten here seemed friendly enough and he heard the voice in his head tell him that this cat really was good enough. Maybe this cat could be a good cat to hang out with.

So he scooted over, told this kit "Help yourself," and watched as he sat down.

The American Shorthair kit glanced at Nightkit and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending that he wasn't looking at all. Nightkit saw that he still had a black smudge on his muzzle and he knew that he wouldn't thank him for helping out.

"Hey, Redkit." The twin toms were back. "Listen to this: we're going down the middle of the train 'cause Quicktongue Jordan's got a huge tarantula. It'll be awesome!" When he didn't reply, one of them meowed to Nightkit, "Sorry we didn't introduce ourselves. We're Berrytail and Cherrynose Weasley, and this is our brother Redkit. See ya later!" And they were off again.

"Are you Nightkit Potter?" Redkit blurted out and shut his mouth like he said something bad.

Nightkit nodded and replied, "Yep. I'm Nightkit Potter."

Redkit gave him a look of awe as he meowed, "Wow! I thought that Berrytail and Cherrynose were playing a prank on me. Do you really got...you know?"

"The what?" Nightkit asked him.

"The _scar_," Redkit replied, his voice dropping to a whisper as he pointed his paw at his forehead. Nightkit nodded and pushed the extra head fur aside to show him the scar. "Wicked! So that's where You-Know-Who..."

Nightkit nodded and meowed, "Yeah, but I can't remember at all. Well, I do see a red light, but there's nothing else after that."

Redkit gaped at him with respectful admiration, but when he realized what he was doing, he quickly looked away and stared out the window.

"So are all of the cats in your family warriors?" Nightkit asked him since he found this cat as interesting as he was to him. _He may be a good friend for you after all, _the voice in his head told him.

Redkit looked back at him, his blue eyes confused, as he mewed, "Um, I believe so. There is this one relative of ours who's a boarding school cat in Argentina, but we don't talk a lot about him."

_I think that's a bit unfair, _Nightkit muttered to himself. It was like whenever his relatives rarely talked about his mother and father. But he kept the comments to himself as he realized that the Weasley cats were one of the warrior families that the black-&-silver tabby British Shorthair was meowing about. Thinking about that cat made him feel disgusted.

"So you must know a lot about magic already," he mewed, changing the subject.

"Yeah, but I don't know a whole lot. Anyways, I heard you went to live with kittypets," Redkit told him, tilting his head to one side with interest. "What're they like?"

"Well, most of them are okay, but my aunt and uncle and cousin are horrible. But my owner treats me well," Nightkit explained. "I wish I have three warrior brothers instead."

Redkit suddenly gave a long sigh and gave him a gloomy look as he muttered, "I have five, and I probably have a lot to live up to. My older brothers, Birdstorm and Clawfoot, have already left the Forest. Birdstorm had been Deputy of his Clan and Clawfoot was the Captain of Air Ball. Now Sandthorn's the one who's a prefect and my twin brothers goof off a lot, but they still get good grades and everyone thinks they're funny."

He sighed, "Everyone wants me to do as well as my siblings, but it's no big deal, because they did it first. And I don't have anything fresh since I got Birdstorm's old school cape, Clawfoot's old tail-wand, and Sandthorn's old mouse."

As Nightkit thought about giving Katara an owl treat sometime later, his new friend took out a cage with a sleeping fat brown mouse inside. "Scrapper's his name and he hardly wakes up, so he's useless. Sandthorn has a new owl now for being a prefect, but I...got Scrapper instead."

It seemed as if he said too much, for he flattened his ears and looked out the window again.

Nightkit knew that there was nothing wrong with him to afford an owl like Katara. Since he didn't know he had a lot of warrior money until a moon ago, he told Redkit all about that. He also told him all about having to wear old sweaters that Tubby couldn't fit in and not getting any good birthday presents. All this began to cheer Redkit up.

"...and until I met Badgerstripe and he told me about it, I didn't know about being a warrior cat or my parents or Red Helmet..." Redkit gave a quick gasp and Nightkit asked him, "What?"

"You said his name!" Redkit mewed, his blue eyes widening with surprise. His voice was full of admiration and fear. "I never thought that you'd dare to say it."

Nightkit shook his head and replied, "I'm not trying to be brave and to say the name. I just never knew that you shouldn't. I told you that I have a lot to learn and...I think I may be the worst in the class." He lowered his head when he voiced the thing that bothered him all day.

Redkit nudged the black kit by the shoulder with his muzzle as he mewed, "No you won't. Many kits from kittypet families are invited to the Forest and they learn just as much as a pure breed warrior!"

While they were talking, the train carried them far out of Juneau, and now they were speeding past forest and hills where bighorn sheep were roaming and rutting. They were quiet for a time while they were watching the grass fields and lanes flip past. Around sunhigh, there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling tabby elder slid back their door.

She mewed, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

"I'm all set," Redkit muttered in a humiliated way.

But Nightkit, who didn't have any breakfast, stood up and asked her, "Do you have any Meow Mix treats?"

"No. Sorry, dearie," the tabby meowed to him. "But we DO have these: Every Flavored Skittles; Big Blowing Bubble Gum; Chocolate Toads; Apple Pastries; Chocolate Cupcakes; Licorice Leashes; and the other lot. What would you like?"

"We'll take a bit of everything," Nightkit meowed to her politely as he took seven Sickles and seven Knuts out of his bag. Redkit stared at it with amazement at the money he had, but they forgot about it when Nightkit gave the money away and dumped the sweets onto the table in front of them.

As Nightkit took a hearty bite out of an Apple Pastry, Redkit watched him with amusement as the ginger kit asked him, "So you're really hungry, eh?"

Nightkit looked up at him with amusement returning to him. He licked his whiskers and purred, "I'm as starved as a pig!" He took one more bite and swallowed it before shoving another Pastry into his mouth.

"These are the sandwiches my mom made for me," the American Shorthair mewed as he dumped four wrapped sandwiches onto the seat from his bag. He pulled one of them apart and gave a weary sigh. "And she always forgets I hate bologna. And you wouldn't want one, either. It's all dry. You know, she doesn't have time with...five kits."

"Come on, I'll swap you a pastry for one of those," Nightkit meowed when he gently nudged one of the pastries to his new friend. He had never known how to share with another cat and it felt really good. But he forgot about those sandwiches and he and his new friend enjoyed sharing tales and treats.

Nightkit saw the sweets called Chocolate Toads and he picked one up, mewing, "Are these real toads?" Badgerstripe had told him that toads are good only when food was scarce in the wild.

"Nah. It's just a spell to make them look real. But you can go ahead and check the card inside. I'm missing Goosetooth." Seeing the confusion on his face, he meowed, "Oh, yeah. Chocolate toads always have warrior cat trading cards in them. You can collect cards of famous warriors. I got five hundred of them, but I'm still missing Goosetooth."

Nightkit bent down and opened the wrapper, but the toad leaped out of the box and climbed out the window. The force of the wind caused the small chocolate amphibian to fly out the window. Ignoring that big lipped alligator moment, Nightkit stared down at the card.

There was a cat on the front; he had a long glowing silver tabby pelt, a flat face, bright blue eyes, and a piece of fur on his muzzle that made him have the fur called a mustache that Twolegs had on their lips. "Silverstar" was his name.

"So this is who Silverstar is!" he exclaimed.

"I got six of him," Redkit explained. "So can I have a Toad? I want to try and find Goosetooth."

Nightkit nodded, pushed a Toad to him, and flipped the card over to read what it said:

_Name: Silverstar Dumbledore_

_Breed: Persian_

_Position: Current Forest leader_

_Considered by many warrior cats to be the greatest warrior of all times, Silverstar is famous for defeating the dark warrior Beartalon in 1965, for the discovery of the twelve uses of griffin blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Flamestone Flamel. Silverstar enjoys soft rock music and golf._

Nightkit turned the card back over and saw, to his shock, that Silverstar's picture had vanished. "Hey, he's gone!"

"He won't be gone for too long," Redkit told him sagely. He opened his Toad and looked at the card. "Damn, I got Rushwing. Again. And I got around eight of her. Do you want it? You can start collecting if you want." His blue eyes darted to the pile of unwrapped Chocolate Toads in the other seat.

"Sure. Help yourself!" Nightkit purred as he took a wrapped Toad into his toad and tossed it to his new friend. "But did you know that the pictures in the kittypet world just stay put?"

Redkit gaped at him with surprise. "Whoa! They don't move? Great StarClan, that's weird!"

Nightkit looked down as Silverstar padded calmly back into the picture on his card and gave him a nod and a smile. Redkit was more interested in eating the toads than looking at the warrior cat cards, but Nightkit couldn't keep his eyes off all of them. Soon, he had not only Silverstar and Rushwing but seven different cards also. He finally tore his eyes away from his eighth card to open a bag of Every Flavored Skittles.

"Do they mean EVERY flavor?" Nightkit asked him.

The American Shorthair nodded and meowed, "You'll get all the ordinary ones like vanilla and peppermint and jelly, but then you can get bean and liver and turnip. Cherrynose said he had an earwax-flavored bean one time." He took a bite of a green carefully and spat it out, sputtering, "Eww...spinach."

The two kittens had a good time eating the Every Flavor Skittles. Nightkit got cookie, pineapple, corn, mint, sushi, lemon, coffee, salmon, and was even brave enough to nibble off the end of a funny gray one, which turned out to be clam.

The landscape now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone and there were now taiga woods, twisting rivers, and huge dark gray and brown mountains. The only time they were disturbed was when the same Exotic Shorthair asked them if they saw a frog.

"Excuse me, but...have you seen a frog anywhere?"

When Nightkit shook his head, the kit wailed, "He's lost! He keeps getting away!"

"He'll turn up," Nightkit reassured him.

"Hopefully," the kit mewed before leaving.

When the kit left, Redkit nudged his mouse and muttered with disgust, "I don't know why he gets upset. I'd lose a frog if I got one. But me...I got Scrappers. He could've died and you'd think he's sleeping. I was going to make him yellow yesterday to make him cooler, but it didn't work. I'll show you."

As Nightkit watched, the ginger tom grabbed his trunk, opened it, and began digging into it, muttering, "This unicorn hair's always poking out. Anyways..." He pulled out an old battered tail-wand with a silvery thing poking out of the tip.

He put the tail-wand on his tail and was ready to use it when there was a knock on the door. It was another cat, but this time, it was a young she-cat around their age.

"Excuse me, but have you seen a bullfrog? _Rana catesbeiana? _A cat named Toadkit lost one," the she-kit meowed. She seemed to be an Angora mix, but with the bushy light brown tabby fur, amber eyes, bossy voice, and large canine teeth, she seemed to be a different breed.

"We already told him we haven't seen it," Redkit retorted.

But the tabby she-cat wasn't listening; instead, she looked at the ginger cat's tail-wand and she meowed to him, "Oh, are you doing magic already? Let's see it." She sat down and Redkit looked a little taken aback at this.

Redkit just shrugged and muttered, "Fine. Let's get this done." He cleared his throat and pointed his tail at Scrapper, chanting,

_Sunshine, daisies, and butter mellow,_

_Turn this big dumb old mouse yellow._

He waved his tail quickly at the mouse, but nothing happened. It just made Scrapper snore more loudly for a mouse.

The she-cat laughed a little and meowed so fast that Nightkit could barely hear the words: "Are you sure if that's a real spell? I think it's the worst I've ever seen! I've tried a few simple spells just for practice, and they worked great for me. All of my families have been kittypets and I was shocked when I got my letter. But I was happy; I've heard it's the best school of Warriorism there is. I've learned all our course books line by line and I hope it'll be enough. I'm Fawn Granger, by the way, and I can show you a thing or two about this For example..."

She waved her tail-wand around and pointed towards a strand of head fur, causing it to fall over Nightkit's face. Nightkit pawed it away and accidentally revealed his scar.

Fawn looked over at him and her jaw dropped when she saw him. "Great balls of fire! You're Nightkit Potter! I know all about you!"

"Really?" Nightkit asked.

"Yeah!" Fawn replied. "I got a few extra books, for background reading if you see. And you're in _Modern Wildcat History,_ _The Rise and Fall of Dark Sins, _and _Great Warrior Events of the Twenty-first Century_."

She caught her breath and went on, "Do you know what Clan you'll be in? I've asked other cats here and I hope I'm in LionClan; it sounds like the best one around! I've heard Silverstar himself was in it, but maybe RavenClan wouldn't be too bad. Anyways, we should go and look for that frog. You two should put your cloaks on because we'll be there soon. By the way, who are _you?_" she mewed to Redkit.

Redkit looked at her and mewed through a mouthful of Chocolate Toad, "Redkit Weasley."

"Nice to meet you." she replied in a sort of repulsed tone. Without another word, she ran off. Nightkit, meanwhile, was happy that he didn't know everything about magic either, by the look on his friend's face.

"Well, I hope she's not in any Clan I'm in," Redkit snapped as he took the tail-wand off and tossed it into his trunk. "Stupid spell... Cherrynose taught me it and I bet you some mouse tails that he knew it was a fake!"

"What Clan are your brothers in?" Nightkit asked him.

Redkit stretched (he appeared to be in a gloomy attitude again) and meowed, "They're in LionClan and my parents were in it, too. I don't know what to do if I don't go into their Clan. You know, RavenClan won't be too bad, though, but I don't wanna go into ViperClan. And that was the Clan You-Know-Who himself was in," he added, sadly lying down on his seat.

Feeling sympathetic for his new friend, Nightkit decided to take his mind off of Clans. So he sat beside his friend and mewed, "So what do your older brothers do?" He had wondered what a warrior did after school.

"Well," Redkit started meowing after his depressed look disappeared, "Clawfoot's in Africa studying Sky Bison and Griffins, and Birdstorm's in Japan doing something for Liverpool. Oh, and did you hear? This has been over the _Daily Warrior_, but I think kittypets don't get that. Some cat tried to rob a high security vault!"

"WHAT?" Nightkit gasped, staring at him with shock. "What happened?"

Redkit just shrugged. "Nothing, and that's why it's big news. That thief hadn't been caught yet and my dad says it was a Dark warrior who'd do it, but they didn't take anything. That's why it's big news. Every cat gets frightened when You-Know-Who gets involved."

The black kitten turned this news over in his mind like a fish flopping around on land. He was starting to get a sting of fear each and every time the demonic bear was mentioned. He guessed that this was all part of entering the mysterious warrior world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Red Helmet" without worrying.

"So anyways...what's your Air Ball team?" Redkit asked.

"Uh...I don't know any," Nightkit confessed as he twitched his tail.

"What?" Redkit looked dumbfounded with shock. "Just you wait, buddy! It's the best game in the whole freakin' world!"

And he was on liftoff, explaining all about four balls and positions of seven cats, reciting celebrated games he and his brothers went to and the set of wings he had liked to get if he could afford it.

He was just taking Nightkit through the better points of the game when the box door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Toadkit, the frog-less tomcat, or Fawn the kittypet this time. Instead, three tomcats stalked in and Nightkit recognized the middle cat: it was the black-&-silver tabby British Shorthair from Morningfur's Cape Shop. He was gazing at the black-furred kitten with interest in his cold gray eyes.

"So it's all true, eh?" the kitten meowed loudly in that British accent. "Every cat's been telling me that Nightkit Potter is on this train! You're him?"

"Yeah..." Nightkit meowed while gazing down at him from his seat. He took a glance at the two other dark brown tabbies behind him; they might be Norwegian Forest Cats, but they looked too fat, too big, and too hostile to be that breed of cat. They looked more like wolverines.

Noticing Nightkit's amazement, the British Shorthair meowed carelessly, "Oh, yeah. Where are my manners? These cats are Lobsterkit Crabbe and Monkeykit Goyle. And I'm Malfoy. _Icekit_ Malfoy."

Redkit gave a small cough, sounding more like a teasing laugh. Icekit glared at him and growled, "Think my name's funny, do you? I don't need to ask you who you are. Ginger fur, ugly muzzles, more kittens than they could afford, and a whole lot of second hand supplies... You must be a Weasley cat!"

He turned around back at Nightkit and meowed, "In the Forest, you'll see that some breeds are much better than others." Glaring at Redkit, he added, "I'm sure you won't want to hang out with the wrong kind. I'll help you out."

Nightkit thought furiously that what Icekit just told him was very confusing, but it was also very wrong. But when he saw Icekit extend a greeting paw, he refused to take it and retorted calmly, "Sorry, 'chum', but I'll decide who the wrong kind is."

Icekit didn't bare his teeth at him, but his eyes did narrow to slits. He told Nightkit slowly, "I'll give you a warning, Potter. You better be careful. If you choose that paw path, you'll go the same path your parents did. They really got what they deserved. Once you hang around riffraff like the Weasleys and that 'panther', you'll become riffraff, too." He said the word "panther" like it was a curse.

_Now he's really gonna get it! _Feeling angry, Nightkit leaped down from his seat and faced Icekit, his claws unsheathing, as Redkit joined him.

"Say that again! I dare you to say that again!" the American Shorthair snarled.

"Oh, NOW you're gonna fight us?" Icekit sneered.

Nightkit glared at his bodyguards and he felt braver by mewing, "We'll fight if you don't leave us alone."

Icekit let out a laugh of contempt and he licked his paw, swiping it over his ear in a lazy way. "Oh, okay. But let's say we finished our food and you have some more left! Sooo...we'll take some off your paws."

"Back off!" Nightkit spat as Monkeykit gave a stupid chuckle and stalked toward a Chocolate Toad.

But as he closed his jaws around one and before Redkit could move, Scrapper the mouse leaped from his cage and bit the end of the dark tabby's tail. This made Monkeykit yowl in pain and drop the Toad. He bucked around quickly before grabbing the mouse in his jaws and tossing it at the closed window.

While this happened, Icekit and his bodyguards left the two other kits alone...either with other mice around or another cat was approaching. That was because Fawn Granger had padded back to them with an annoyed look on her face.

"What the heck's going on?" she snapped angrily, looking at the sweets as Redkit retrieved his mouse by the tail.

"I think that thug knocked him out," Redkit meowed to Nightkit. He looked down to hear soft breathing as he huffed, "Oh, so funny. He's asleep again! So you've met Icekit before?"

Nightkit nodded and began telling him everything about their meeting in Dragon Alley. "Yeah, I've heard about his family," Redkit muttered darkly. "They were some of the first cats to come back to our side after You-Know-Who fell. They were saying they were haunted. My dad doesn't believe it, though. He says Mr. Malfoy didn't need to have an excuse to go to the Dark Side." He turned to Fawn and asked her, "Can we help you?"

"Yes. Hurry up and put your capes on." Fawn was saying this with a huff of irritation. "I've just been up to the front to ask the manager of the train, and he says we're nearly there." Looking at the scattered mess, she hissed, "Were you two fighting already? You'll get busted!"

"Hey! Scrapper was fighting, not us!" Redkit growled at her. "Please leave since we're gonna put our capes on."

Fawn gave a weary sigh before ranting on, "Okay. I was only here because some of the other cats were acting like idiots by running up and down the halls." She turned to leave but turned back to meow to Redkit, "And you still got a smudge on your muzzle. Right here," she added, pointing at her own muzzle to guide him before running off.

Redkit glared at her as she left, but he did lick his paw and cleaned his muzzle with it. Nightkit peered out of the window; it was getting dark outside with the mountains blocking out some stars. He could see other mountains and forests under a deep purple sky; he even saw the sea. The train was indeed slowing down.

Both tomcats shook any dirt from their pelts before putting on their long black capes. Redkit's cape was so short you could see his tail blowing around in the wind like a leaf.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will reach the Forest across the sea on the island off of Kodiak Island in five minutes. Please leave your baggage on the train; it will be taken to the school castle unconnectedly."

Nightkit's belly gurgled a little with nerves and he saw that Redkit looked pale under his bright ginger pelt. They crammed their cape pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd swarming around the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. Cats were pouring their way toward the door and out on to a small dark platform. Nightkit shivered in the cold night air; even summer nights in Alaska were cold sometimes. Then a lamp bobbed over the cats' heads, and Nightkit heard a familiar deep booming voice: "First years! First years come right over here! Hey, Nightkit! You okay, kid?"

Badgerstripe's large tiger-like face beamed over the ocean of multicolored heads. Redkit gazed up at the huge cat and gasped, "Whoa!"

Badgerstripe purred at that before going on, "C'mon, follow me! Are there any more first years? Just watch your step, okay? First years, follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, the first year cats followed the giant black tom down what seemed to be a sheer slender pathway. It was so dark on either side of them that Nightkit thought there must be thick trees there and he had blended into the environment. No cat talked much, although Toadkit, the Exotic Shorthair who kept losing his bullfrog, sniffled once or twice.

"You'll get a chance to see the castle in just a few minutes, everybody!" Badgerstripe tossed the message over his shoulder. "It'll be down by the shore over there!"

The cats gasped with awe when they saw that the narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great dark gray sea. Perched atop a high mountain on the island far away, its windows luminous in the twinkling sky, was a gigantic castle with many towers and trees around it.

"There should be no more than four cats in a boat, fellers!" Badgerstripe called over his shoulder to the new apprentices. He pointed his huge paw to an armada of small wooden boats rocking around in the water by the shore. As Nightkit and Redkit went into the boat with Fawn and Toadkit, Nightkit wondered how the boats would survive the waves in the sea.

"Is everyone in a boat now?" shouted Badgerstripe, who had a boat to himself because of his size. "Right then! FORWARD!"

And the armada of little boats moved off immediately, gliding across the sea quite swiftly, which was as bumpy as a toad's skin. All the cats were silent, either staring up at the great castle overhead or watching the seals catch fish. The castle towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the island on which it stood.

"Everyone, get your heads down!" Badgerstripe yowled as the first boats reached the island; they all bent their heads and the small boats carried them through a drape of ivy vines that hid a wide opening in the sea cliff face. They were carried along a shadowy tunnel lit up by fireflies, which seemed to be taking them right under the castle, until they reached some underground dock, where they scrambled out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Hey, kid! This yer frog here?" Badgerstripe meowed as he checked the boats as the younger cats climbed out of them.

"Kermit!" Toadkit squealed as he landed right on top of a large shivering bullfrog. He gazed up fearfully and gratefully at the gigantic black cat, who gave him a purr of amusement. Then they padded up a vessel in the rock after Badgerstripe's lantern, coming out at last onto soft wet grass right in the shadow of the castle.

The cats sprinted up a flight of stone steps and flocked around the enormous oak front door. "Okay, are all the cats here? Hey kid, still got yer frog?" Badgerstripe called over his shoulder. Then he stood on his hind legs, making him as tall as a standing Twoleg, and knocked on the door with both his large front paws.

_I can't believe this is happening! _Nightkit thought. _ I'm going into the Wild!_

_To be continued..._

**...**

**Hermione: Okay, one thing: why'd you name the owl Katara? Are you trying to kill her?**

**AvatarCat10: No! I'm naming her that because she's a strong brave owl like Katara is!**

**Hermione: Oh. Then why Kermit for the frog?**

**Harry: There was a puppet frog in the Muggle world named Kermit.**

**Hermione: Oh. I remember now.**

**AvatarCat10: This is the first time someone started an ending conversation without me going first...and that's okay! Plus, I didn't come up with the idea of Warrior Cat trading cards. Those are only made in China...though I don't know the designs.**

**Anyways, you know what to do: review! And you'll get virtual sodas of your own choice!**

**AvatarCat10 and everyone: See ya next time!**


	7. The Sorting Collar

**AvatarCat10: I know that I should finish the episode of Avatar Cat called Volefoot of WaterClan, but I feel a little too down about what happened on the real episode to try it. So I'll be updating another chapter of Nightfang and the Elixir Stone!**

**Plus, I forgot to mention who the cats would sound like: Redkit sounds like D.B. Sweeney from Dinosaur, Fawn sounds like Mae Whitman from Avatar: The Last AirBender, and Icekit sounds like...well, his old self since he has a British accent.**

**Harry: Hey, AvatarCat. Hagrid went off to check on Grawp and Neville's gone away to visit his grandmother. So it's going to be us four?**

**Holly: (Comes into the room) Let's make that FIVE. Katara's taking some time off to look after her son, so I'm filling in for her at the time being. Hey, Harry, may I say the disclaimer?**

**Harry: I don't know. Ask AvatarCat10 as usual.**

**Holly: (Turns to AvatarCat10) Please?**

**AvatarCat10: Okay! You're winning me over with those pretty brown eyes of yours, anyways!**

**Holly: (Blushes) Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: Just like any other story that he's ever written, he doesn't own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats! Plus, the cats on here may look a TINY bit like the dogs from the Ginga series. But they'll still look like cats!**

**AvatarCat10 and everyone: Enjoy! (They sit down in armchairs and face the screen)**

**...**

_The Sorting Collar_

Badgerstripe sat back down on the ground and waited until the oak doors opened. When they did, a skinny she-cat padded toward the group. This she-cat looked quite old; she also had pale brown tabby fur, sharp green eyes, and black spots around her eyes. She may look like an Oriental Shorthair, but the look on this cat's face made Nightkit think he shouldn't annoy her.

"Here are the new apprentices, Thistleheart," Badgerstripe meowed as he pointed his tail at the newcomers.

"Thank you, Badgerstripe," Thistleheart meowed. "I shall take these young ones from here." Badgerstripe gave a nod before padding inside ahead of them while Thistleheart and the new apprentices padded in after him.

The entrance hall was so immense Nightkit could have fit Daniel's house in it if he could. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Liverpool, the ceiling was too high to see, trees and rocks and grass was everywhere with a small river, and a glorious sandstone staircase facing them led to the upper floors of the castle. The inside did look like a set of ruins, but it felt more comfortable than being in a normal Twoleg house.

They followed the Forest deputy across the flagged stone floor. Nightkit could hear the murmur of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right since the rest of the school had already come. But the pale brown tabby she-cat showed the first years into an empty chamber off the hall. The young cats crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually do, peering about themselves nervously.

Thistleheart sat before them and announced, "Welcome, young warriors, to the Forest, School of Warriorism. The start-of-term feast shall begin soon, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, let me remind you that you will be sorted into your Clans. The Sorting is a very important ritual because, while you are here, your Clan will be like your family within the Forest. You will have classes with the rest of your Clan, sleep in your Clan dens, and spend free time in your Clan clearing room.

"The four Clans are called LionClan, BadgerClan, RavenClan, and ViperClan. Each Clan has its own noble history and talents and each Clan has produced outstanding warriors throughout the ages. While you remain at the Forest, your triumphs will earn your Clan points, while your rule-breaking will lose your Clan points. At the end of the year, the Clan that has the most points will be awarded the Clan trophy, which is a great honor. I hope that you youngsters will be a credit to whichever Clan you go to.

"The Sorting Ritual will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. May I ask you all to smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting?" Her eyes suddenly switched over to Toadkit, who had thrown himself on top of Kermit the frog and gazed up at her with a hint of fear. Then she looked at Redkit, who hadn't washed the splotch off his muzzle yet.

Seeing this, Nightkit nervously licked his front paw and tried to smooth it all over his head fur. Then he noticed that he was still wearing the collar Daniel gave to him and, seeing the others had already taken theirs off, he took his off too. It felt good without the collar pinching his neck.

"When we get ready, I shall come back for you young cats," Thistleheart meowed. "Please wait as quietly as you can." She turned around and padded out of the chamber.

Nightkit gulped very nervously, feeling woozy. "Hey, how do they exactly sort us into the Clans?" he asked Redkit.

"Who knows?" Redkit shrugged. "Maybe we gotta do a test or something. Even though he might be joking, Berrytail told me that it hurt quite a bit."

The black kit's heart gave a horrible jolt as if it were on fire. _I have to do a test right in front of the entire school?_ But he didn't know any magic yet, so what in the name of StarClan would he have to do? He didn't expect something like this the moment they arrived. He looked around anxiously and saw that the other cats looked terrified, too. No one was talking much at all except for Fawn Granger, who was whispering very fast to the other cats about all the spells and charms she had learned and wondering which one she would need.

Nightkit tried his best not to listen to the Angora she-cat. He had felt even more nervous than the time when he'd had to take an obedience school report home to the Dursley cats saying that he'd somehow turned the trainer's hair yellow. He kept his green eyes fixed on the door; any second any time from now, Thistleheart would come back and lead him to his judgment time.

Suddenly, some cat had screeched something loudly, for it made Nightkit leap around a rabbit-length into the air and spin around. He gasped and so did the young cats around him. About twenty ghost-cats had just padded through the back wall and into the room. Pearly-white and somewhat see-through, they glided across the room meowing to one another and hardly glancing at the first years; they appeared to be arguing about something.

What looked like a fat little gray tabby was saying: "Well, I say that we should just forgive and forget. We _should_ give him a second chance."

"My dear friend Monk, haven't we given Joker all the chances that he would ever deserve even though he ruins it? He's giving us all a bad name and, you know, he's not really even a spirit and...I say, what are you all doing here?" A golden tabby ghost cat with a ruff and eyeglasses had just and suddenly spotted the new apprentices staring at them.

"Oho! So you are the new apprentices!" meowed the Chubby Monk, smiling around at them. "I suppose that you are all about to be Sorted?" A few cats nodded without a sound from their muzzles. "Well, I do hope to see you in BadgerClan!" said the Monk. "It's my old Clan, you know."

"Come on. Move along now," a familiar sharp voice meowed. Thistleheart had returned with her fur relaxing as she padded to them. "The Sorting Ritual's just going to start." One by one, the ghost cats floated away through the opposite wall and to the other room. Thistleheart raised her voice and meowed, "Now everyone form a line and follow me."

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to honey from a beehive, Nightkit got into line behind a sand-colored Manx tomcat with Redkit behind him, and they padded out of the chamber, back across the hallway, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Nightkit looked around in pure amazement, having never even imagined such a weird and wonderful and impressive place. It was lit by hundreds of candles that were floating above ground over four long tables that looked like trees, where the rest of the older cats were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets, more golden than natural gold.

At the top of the hall was another long table where the older mentors were sitting. The Forest deputy led the first-year apprentices up here, so that they came to a stop in a line facing the other warrior cats, with the mentors behind them. The hundreds of feline faces staring at them looked like pale squid in the sparkling candlelight. Spotted here and there like spots among the cats, the ghost cats shone steamy silver. Determined to avoid all the staring eyes, Nightkit looked upward and saw a smooth black ceiling dotted with stars and the moon.

He heard Fawn whisper to another cat, "It's not really the ceiling. It's just bewitched to look like the night sky. I read about it in _The History of the Forest."_

But it was kind of hard to believe there was a ceiling right there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't basically open on to StarClan. Badgerstripe had taught him all about the heavenly warrior ancestors.

The Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix hurriedly looked down again as Thistleheart placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years without a sound. On top of the stool, she put a ragged blue collar. This collar was torn and ancient and tremendously dirty. Aunt Tulip wouldn't have let it in the house, but Daniel would've inspected it.

_Maybe they had to try and get a dog to try it on_, Nightkit thought madly. That seemed the sort of thing. Becoming aware of every cat in the hall staring at the collar, he stared at it too. For just a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the collar twitched and it suddenly stood up on its own so that it looked like a mouth...and the collar began to sing:

_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter collar than me._

_You can keep your paw pads pink,_

_Your long ears sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Forest Sorting Collar_

_And I can top them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Collar can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in LionClan,_

_Where dwell the bold at heart,_

_Their daring, spirit, and gallantry_

_Set those lions apart;_

_You might belong in BadgerClan,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient good badgers are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old RavenClan,_

_If you have a ready mind,_

_Where ravens of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or maybe in ViperClan_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning snakes use any tricks_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap! (Though I'm really not!)_

The whole hall burst into a round of applause as the collar finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables filled with cats and then became quite still again.

"Aw, we gotta try that collar on!" Redkit exclaimed. "Oh, I am SO gonna kill Berrytail for this! He's been ranting on about wrestling a mammoth!"

Nightkit had no choice but to smile weakly back at his friend. To him, trying on the collar was a lot better than having to do some magic, but he did wish they could have tried it on without the other cats watching. The collar seemed to be asking rather a lot and Nightkit didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. _But I have to be me!_

The pale brown tabby deputy now stepped forward, holding a long roll of parchment in her jaws. "When I call your name, you will put the collar around your neck and sit on the stool to be sorted," she called. "Snowpaw Abbot!"

A blushing black-&-white she-cat stumbled out of line, put the collar around her neck, which was a little bit too big for her, and sat down. A moment or two passed, then...

"I got the Clan for you! BADGERCLAN!" the collar shouted. The cats on the table on the right cheered and clapped as Snowpaw went to sit down at the BadgerClan table. Nightkit saw the ghost of the Chubby Monk waving his tail cheerfully at her.

"Whitepaw Bones!"

The collar shouted again, "BADGERCLAN!" and Whitepaw (a mix of Siamese and American Shorthair) ran off to sit next to Snowpaw.

"Treepaw Boot!" "RAVENCLAN!" The cats on the table second from the left cheered this time; several RavenClan cats stood up to touch noses with Treepaw as he joined them.

Haypaw Brocklehurst went to RavenClan also, but Brownpaw Brown (a brown Oriental Shorthair) became the first new LionClan apprentice. And the cats on the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Nightkit could see Redkit's twin brothers, Berrytail and Cherrynose, catcalling and wolf-whistling.

Boulderpaw Bulstrode (a black Persian) then became a ViperClan cat. Even though Nightkit tried to push away after all he'd heard about ViperClan, he thought they looked like an obnoxious and very hostile Clan.

The black-furred kitten was really starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during playtime at his old obedience school. He had always been the last cat to be chosen because no one wanted Tubby to think they liked him, not because he was no good.

"Finchpaw Finch-Fletchley!" "BADGERCLAN!"

Sometimes, Nightkit seemed to notice, the collar shouted out the Clan at once, but it took a little while to decide at other cats. Sandpaw Finnigan, the sandy-furred Manx tomcat next to Nightkit in the line, sat on the stool for approximately an entire minute before the collar declared him a LionClan cat.

"Fawnpaw Granger!"

The newly-named Fawnpaw immediately dashed over to the stool and eagerly fitted the collar around her neck. When the collar shouted, "LIONCLAN," Redkit gave a groan of disgust.

As soon as this was over, Nightkit felt a horrible thought strike his brain like lightning like any cat would fear. What if the collar didn't choose a Clan for him? If so, that collar would be on his neck for around an hour, and then Thistleheart would take it off and she would tell him the Forest didn't want him and he'd be sent back to the kittypets on the train. But he didn't want to go back yet; this was his only chance to learn how to be a wildcat.

When Toad_paw_ Longbottom, the brown tabby Exotic Shorthair who kept losing his bullfrog, was called into the open, he tripped a little bit about half his way to the stool and tried the collar on. "LIONCLAN!" the collar shouted after quite a while of thinking. The young tabby then ran off while wearing the collar and dashed back in the middle of laughter to give it to Coyotepaw MacDougal.

Then Ice_paw_ Malfoy strutted forward with an arrogant look on his face when his name was called and Nightkit saw that he seemed to have his wish: the collar didn't touch his ears, but it screeched, "VIPERCLAN!" The black-&-silver tabby tom padded away to join his friends Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw, looking very happy with himself.

There weren't many cats left to Sort now, Nightkit thought with nervousness. "Moonpaw Moon", "Sablepaw Nott", "Pugpaw Parkinson", then a pair of twin Siamese she-cats, "Rosepaw Patil" and "Daisypaw Patil", then "Graypaw Perks", and then, at long last...

"Nightpaw Potter!"

As Nightpaw nervously stepped forward, ready for this decision, he could hear whispers breaking out like buzzing bees all over the room. Whispers included: "Did she just say 'Potter?'" "You mean THE Nightpaw Potter?"

Before he closed his eyes, the last thing Nightpaw before the collar dropped around his neck was the hall full of cats standing on their hind legs to get a good look at him. In the next second, he was looking at the black inside of the membranes of his eyes. He waited for just a few seconds, but...

"_Hmm_," hissed a small voice in his mind. "_This is so hard. Very hard, indeed. You seem to have plenty of courage and you have a clever mind, too. Ah, there's talent, yes, and you seem to have a thirst to prove yourself. So interesting_. _So which Clan shall I put you?_"

"Not ViperClan. Not ViperClan," Nightpaw murmured, sinking his claws into the stool as he chanted this over and over. It seemed that other cats have been able to score their claws over the stool also.

The voice of the collar hissed again, "_Not in ViperClan, huh? Are you positive about this? You'll be a great warrior, it's all in your head, and ViperClan will be the Clan to help you on your way to your destiny, no doubt about that! No?" _it added as the new apprentice chanted the rejection still. "_Are you still positive about this? If so, you shall be in..._LIONCLAN!" it shouted loudly.

With relief, Nightpaw heard the collar shout the last word to the whole hall. Feeling happy, he took the collar off and padded unsteadily toward the LionClan table. He was so comforted to have been chosen and not put in ViperClan that he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. Sandthorn Weasley sat up and touched noses with him energetically, while Berrytail and Cherrynose, the twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

Nightpaw sat down opposite the golden tabby ghost cat he saw earlier. But when he gave the black apprentice a pat on the shoulder with his paw, it gave Nightpaw the unexpected horrible feeling that he had fallen into a freezing pond in the middle of leaf-bare.

He could see the High Table properly now thanks to being a LionClan cat. At the end right near him sat Badgerstripe; when the huge black tom caught his eye and gave him a hearty wink, Nightpaw grinned and nodded back. And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large golden chair, sat Silverstar Dumbledore. Nightpaw already recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Toad on the train. The elderly Persian's silver tabby pelt was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghost cats. Nightpaw spotted Quailflight Quirrell, too, the nervous young brown-&-white tom from the Dripping Pot. The European Shorthair was looking very weird in a large lavender turban.

And now there were only and finally three cats left to be Sorted. Cinderpaw Thomas, an American Shorthair tomcat with dark gray fur and a stockier body than Redkit, joined up with Nightpaw at the LionClan table.

Turnippaw Turpin, a black-&-brown she-cat, became a RavenClan cat and now it was Red_paw's _turn to be Sorted. Redpaw seemed to know this, for he was shivering pretty hard.

As the young American Shorthair gasped when the collar fitted itself around his neck, Nightpaw prayed to StarClan to help his friend as the collar said, "Oho! Another Weasley cat, eh? Oh, I know the Clan for you, child...LIONCLAN!" Redpaw gave a sigh of relief and Nightpaw cheered for the bright ginger tom loudly while he sat down with his brothers at the LionClan table.

"Excellent job, Redpaw. Well done indeed," Sandthorn congratulated his brother pompously while Tigerpaw Zabini, a tiger-striped Bengal cat, was Sorted into ViperClan. After this was over, Thistleheart gave the scroll to a nearby Burrowing Owl, which hooted and flew off, and she took the collar away.

As Silverstar rose to his paws, Nightpaw looked down at his empty plate and felt his belly rumble; those sweets on the train a few hours ago seemed like days ago to him. But he wondered who would look after Katara while he was waiting in the Great Hall.

"Welcome, everyone," Silverstar was meowing to everyone. He sat down and looked at them all with happiness in his blue eyes as if nothing pleased him more than having new apprentices. "To our old warriors, welcome back! To our new warriors, welcome! Before we begin our new feast, I would like to share some start-of-term notices with you:

"The first thing is that first-year apprentices must understand that the swamp on the grounds near the coast of this island is forbidden to all younger cats. And a few of our older warriors should do well to remember this as well." At this, his blue eyes narrowed with half-amusement and half-seriousness at the direction of Berrytail and Cherrynose.

"The second thing is that Mr. Oscar Filch, the custodian, has asked me to remind you all that there should be no magic being used in the corridors except in classes. The third thing in mind is that AirBall trials will be held in the half-moon into the term. Any cat interested in playing for their Clan teams should speak to Clearwing Hooch after the feast. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor passageway on the right side is strictly prohibited to every cat who does not wish to die a very painful and very horrible death."

Nightpaw was amazed at this. "Is he serious?" he muttered to Berrytail and Cherrynose.

But it was Sandthorn who shrugged and meowed, "I think he is. It's really weird because he usually gives us prefects a reason why we're not allowed to go to some place. The swamp's full of dangerous animals like bears; every cat knows that. I do think he might have told us, of course."

"Onto a happier note," Silverstar went on. "Right before we begin the feast, I shall say four words. Here they are: Blubber, Oddment, Nitwit, and Pinch! Thank you." The silver Persian sat back down and ever cat cheered for him.

"Uh, is it me or is he crazy?" Nightpaw asked someone randomly.

Sandthorn glanced at him and meowed in reply, "Crazy? Well, he's a genius! He's the best warrior in the whole wide world! But he can be a bit crazy, yes. Would you like some potatoes, Nightpaw?"

Nightpaw gasped with astonishment as the dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he would love to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, hot dogs, bacon and steak, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, French fries, hamburgers, corn, carrots, gravy, pizza, barbeque sauce, and mice for some odd reason.

Daniel Dursley never exactly starved Nightpaw, but the Dursley cats never allowed him to eat as much as he liked. Tubby always took anything that Nightpaw really wanted, even if it was something disgusting or indigestible. Nightpaw piled his plate with a bit of everything except the mice, since he could catch some later, and began to eat. It was all so delicious and he saw that they didn't have to use cat forks or spoons.

"That looks delicious," meowed the golden tabby ghost sadly as he watched the black cat chew hard on a steak.

"Um...can't you...?"

"Oh, I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," the ghost mewed. "I don't need to, of course, but a ghost of a cat does miss it. Did I yet introduce myself? I am Sir Nicholas de Minty-Pompton at your service. And I am the resident ghost of the LionClan Tower."

"I know who you are!" Redpaw spoke up so suddenly. "My brothers told me all about you. You're Nearly Headlesshead!"

The ghost just sighed and muttered, "Of course. Everyone calls me that."

Suddenly, Fawnpaw interrupted the conversation by coming forward and meowing, "_Nearly headless_? How could a cat be _nearly headless_?"

"Like this!" Nearly Headlesshead meowed as he grabbed onto his left ear. As he pulled on it, his whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on the edge of a cliff. The cats who had seen it yelped with surprise; it appeared that someone had seemingly tried to cut his head off, but he or she hadn't done it correctly.

He looked rather happy at seeing their stunned faces, for Nearly Headlesshead flipped his head back onto his neck and mewed, "Well, well, well, new LionClan cats! I hope you're going to help us win the Clan challenge this year? LionClan cats have never gone so long without winning. ViperClan won the trophy six years in a row! The Gory Gaunt's becoming so unbearable, but that may be so since he's the ViperClan ghost."

Nightpaw looked over his shoulder at the ViperClan table and saw a horrifying-looking ghost cat sitting there, with bare staring eyes, a bony face, and a black pelt stained with silver blood. He was right next to Icepaw, who Nightpaw was satisfied to see, didn't look too happy with the seating preparations.

"How did he get covered in so much blood?" Sandpaw asked with great interest; he appeared to have an Irish accent.

"Um...I've...never asked," the LionClan ghost meowed carefully.

When every cat had eaten as much as they could, the leftovers of the food faded from the plates, leaving them dazzling spotless as before. A moment later, the desserts appeared. They included blocks of ice cream of every flavor, Oreo pies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate éclairs, peanut butter fudge, bon-bons, cake, Jell-O, chocolate and vanilla pudding...

As Nightpaw helped himself to a chocolate chip cookie or two, the cats have begun to talk about their families.

"I'm a Manx and I'm half and half. Me dad's a kittypet and me mum's a warrior," Sandpaw was meowing. It was clear that he DID have an Irish accent. "Mum didn't tell him that she was a warrior until after they became mates. Bit of a shock to the poor scallywag."

That left the other cats purring with delight. Redpaw then meowed to Toadpaw, "Hey Toadpaw, what about you?"

"Well..." Toadpaw meowed as he shuffled a cinnamon roll around his paws, "I was raised by my grandmother and she's an elderly warrior; my family are Exotic Shorthairs. But everyone in my family thought that I was just a plain old kittypet for moons. But then, one night, my Uncle Mallowtail came around for dinner and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by my tail when my Aunt Haycloud offered him a fish and he accidentally let me go. But I bounced all the way down the garden and into the Thunderpath. They were all really delighted and Grandma was crying because she was so happy. So Mallowtail gave me Kermit."

On Nightpaw's other side, Fawnpaw and Sandthorn were talking about lessons. _That's TWO things they have in common, _the Maine Coon/British Shorthair meowed to himself.

"Oh, I hope that the lessons start really soon; I am _so_ psyched!" Fawnpaw meowed happily. "Since there's much to learn, I wanna start Transfiguration really soon. I wish I could turn one thing into a different thing, but I've heard from other cats that it's going to be hard."

"Don't you worry about it," Sandthorn reassured her. "Thistleheart will start letting you youngsters try small things like turning a bumblebee into a button and the other stuff."

Nightpaw was starting to feel warm and sleepy, but he looked up at the High Table again. Badgerstripe was lapping deeply from his glass and Thistleheart was quietly talking to her silver-pelted leader. Quailflight, in his absurd lavender turban, was talking to a tomcat with long oily dark brown tabby fur, a broad head, and large paws; he seemed to be a mix of Norwegian Forest Cat.

But suddenly, the pain began to start. The dark brown tabby tom looked past Quailflight's turban straight into Nightpaw's eyes and a sensitive hot pain shot across the scar on the black tom's forehead. He let out a gasp of pain at this and lowered his head over the food he had been eating.

Sandthorn turned to him with concern in his eyes and meowed, "Nightpaw, what's the matter?"

"Nothing," Nightpaw replied very quickly. Then the pain was gone as quickly as it had come to him. A harder thing to shake off was the feeling that Nightpaw had gotten from the warrior's look at him. It was a feeling that he didn't like the younger cat at all. "Who's that cat talking to Quailflight?"

"How'd you know about Quailflight, eh? He's always looking nervous!" Sandthorn purred jokingly in a pompous way. "Anyways, that's Brokenfang Snape and he teaches Potions, but he never wanted to even though he's an expert. Every cat knows that he's after Quailflight's jobs since he's very interested in the Dark Arts."

Nightpaw turned around and watched Brokenfang for a while, but the black tabby didn't look at him again.

At last, the desserts disappeared also, and Silverstar got onto his paws once again; the hall fell silent for a few minutes. "Ahem...I would like to say just one more announcement now that we are all full and quenched. Before we go to our nests, let us sing the school song!" But Nightpaw saw that the other warriors' smiles had become rather flat except for Badgerstripe.

"Please pick out your favorite tune!" Silverstar meowed and every cat (except for the new apprentices) burst into song:

"_Oh great old Forest, Forest of wonders,_

_Teach us something, please._

_Whether we be elders_

_Or kits with shaky knees._

_Our heads should try to fill up_

_With some motivating stuff,_

_For now they're blank and full of air,_

_Cobwebs and bits of fluff,_

_So teach us things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we forgot._

_Just do your best and we'll learn the rest,_

_So that all our brains shall not rot."_

Everybody finished the song at their own different times. At last, only the Weasley twin toms were left singing along to a very sluggish funeral march. Silverstar conducted their last few lines with his tail and when they finished, he was one of those who cheered the loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes with a forepaw. "It is a magic beyond all we do here! And it can truly tame the savage beast. And now, it's bedtime. Off you go! You have a lot of learning to do tomorrow, everyone!"

The first-year apprentices followed Sandthorn through the babbling crowds out of the Great Hall and up the sandstone staircase. Nightpaw's legs were like honey again, but this time, it was only because he was so tired and stuffed. Despite that, he was also surprised that the cats and other animals in the portraits along the passageways whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Sandthorn led them through doorways hidden behind sliding boards and hanging textiles. They went up some more staircases, yawning and dragging their paws, and Nightpaw was just ready to keel over when they came to a sudden halt.

A bunch of sticks was floating above the ground ahead of them, and as Sandthorn took a pawstep toward them, they started throwing themselves at him. He dodged each one and hissed to the apprentices, "That there is the Joker and he's a poltergeist. Show yourself, Joker, or I'll go right to the Gory Gaunt!" he yowled to the sticks as his fur bristled.

There was a loud bang, and a little black cat with wicked black eyes and a wide grinning mouth appeared, floating in the air and holding the sticks in his jaws. "Oooooooh!" he squealed with an evil laugh. "Wittle Firsties! What fun!" He swooped suddenly at them and all the cats ducked.

"Go away right now, Joker, or the Gaunt will hear about this. I mean it!" Sandthorn roared as he took a swipe at the air with his paw.

Joker just stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the sticks on poor Toadpaw's head, who gave a shrill squeak. "Look out for that fiend," Sandthorn meowed when they padded off again. "The Gory Gaunt is the only one in this school besides Silverstar who can control him, for he won't listen even to us prefects. Oh, here we are."

At the very end of the passageway hung a portrait of a very fat dark tortoiseshell she-cat in a pink silk nest; under her picture read "The Fat Queen." "Password, please?" she meowed.

"Dragon claw," Sandthorn answered correctly, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a circular hole in the wall. All the LionClan cats leaped through it (though Toadpaw needed help) and found themselves in the LionClan clearing room, a welcoming round room full of soft sofas and soft chairs.

_This feels like home...better than home, actually._

The LionClan prefect directed the she-cat through one door to their dormitory and the tomcats through another door. At the top of a spiral staircase since they were clearly in one of the towers, they found their nests at last: five four-poster beds hung with deep crimson and velvet curtains, and their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they stretched and yawned and fell fast asleep into their nests.

"That fresh-kill sure was tasty, eh?" Redpaw muttered to Nightpaw through the hangings. "Hey, get _off_, Scrapper! You won't believe what's he's doing! He's chewing my sheets."

Nightpaw didn't answer, but he waited until Redpaw fell asleep. Then, he leaped off of his bed, approached the owl cage, and released Katara from the cage. Cat and owl sat near the window, staring out at the stars in the sky and the water crashing around at the shore of the island. He had a vision of a turban telling him to go to ViperClan while red eyes glowed, but he shoved it away.

"This is our new life, Katara," Nightpaw purred to his owl companion as he lay down in his nest. "We're home..." At this, he closed his eyes and let dreams enter his sleep. It was a terrific day.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat10: That's all I can do for now. Plus, this is the last story I'll update in 2010 and I'll update some others in 2011. Also, this is shorter than the previous two chapters and it may be somewhat of a new record.**

**Holly: What about your FanFiction name?**

**AvatarCat10: Oh yeah! I'll change it to AvatarCat11 to symbolize a new year!**

**Anyways, if anyone reviews, they will automatically receive virtual chocolate chip cookies and a soda of their own choice. Plus, Nightpaw is finally in his first year into a world of adventure and magic.**

**AvatarCat10 and everyone in the room: See ya next time! And Happy New Year!**


	8. Master of Potions

**AvatarCat11: I guess I'll just have to update Nightfang and the Elixir Stone for quite a while. ...wait a minute. Where is the Golden Trio?**

**Katara: They decided to go on a vacation. We can stay here for a little bit and document the story. Besides, Tenzin will get tired and hungry, so he'll need to rest.**

**Holly: Katara's right. We can fill in for them, if you want.**

**AvatarCat11: We can and we can tell them about what happened over the next chapters. Plus, we should let DaniPotterCedric'sGirl say the disclaimer. I bet she wants to say the disclaimer after so long.**

**DaniPotterCedric'sGirl: Thanks, AvatarCat11! I've wanted to say this for a long while! I'm glad you updated it!**

**Disclaimer: Look throughout the entire story and you'll see that he doesn't own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats!**

**Everyone in the room: Enjoy!**

**...**

_Master of Potions_

The next day, Nightpaw began hearing whispers that followed him all day:

"Hey! Look over there!"

"Where?"

"Next to the ginger-furred cat!"

"The black cat with green eyes?"

"Did you see his size?"

"Did you see his scar?"

Cats that kept lining up outside classrooms stood on their hind paws to get a look at him, or even stepped back to pass him in the hallways again, staring at the black cat. Nightpaw now wished that they wouldn't because he had been trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes in his new school of cats.

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at the Forest: broad, extensive ones; thin, rickety ones; some that would lead to somewhere different on a Saturday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to leap over. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked them civilly or tickled them in the right place. But there were doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending to be. It was also so hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot.

To his dismay, the ghost cats didn't help either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open up. Headlesshead was always happy and positive to wisely guide new LionClan cats, but the Joker was trickier than a fox stealing chickens if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop trashcans on your head, pull carpets from under your paws, bombard you with chalk, or sneak up behind you while invisible, grab your tail, and shriek, "GOT YOUR TAIL!"

Possibly, a cat that was worse than the Joker was the custodian, Oscar Filch, a dark brown cat with bulging yellow eyes. Nightpaw and Redpaw got on the wrong side of him on their very first morning of school. Oscar found them trying to force their way through a door that unfortunately turned out to be the entrance to the forbidden passageway on the third floor. He wouldn't believe that they were lost; for he was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose. He was just threatening to lock them in the dungeons, only for them to be rescued by Quailflight, who was passing by.

Oscar owned a ferret called Mr. Sniffer, a scrawny, dust-colored weasel-like heap of bones with bulging eyes just like his owner. He was the one who patrolled the hallways all by himself. If you break a rule in front of him or even put just one claw out of line, he'd turn around and look for Oscar, who would appear while wheezing just two seconds later. Oscar knew the secret corridors of the castle better than any other cat (except perhaps Berrytail and Cherrynose) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghost cats. The apprentices and young warriors all hated him, and most of them wanted to give Mr. Sniffer a good clawing.

And then there were the classes themselves once you manage to find them. There was a lot more to magic and being a warrior, as Nightpaw quickly found out, than waving your tail-wand and saying a few funny words or creeping up onto a mouse.

They had to study the starry night sky through their telescopes every Wednesday at moonhigh and learn the names of different stars and the planets' movements. Three times a quarter-moon, they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a light gray tabby she-cat (a European Shorthair mix) named Sproutflower Sprout. With her, they learned how to take care of all the bizarre plants and fungi and they had to find out what they were used for and which ones are used for medicine.

The most boring class was History of Warriorism, which was the only one taught by a ghost (not only that, but he was also a Galapagos tortoise). Professor Franklin had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of his study fire in his master's office and got up next morning to teach, leaving his ancient body behind him. Franklin mumbled on and on while they wrote down some names and dates, and got the warrior names Mouse and Vole mixed up.

Shortlegs Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a male brown-&-white Munchkin cat who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class, he took the roll call, and when he reached Nightpaw's name, he gave an excited squeal and toppled out of sight. He was not harmed in any way, but he was amazed indeed.

Thistleheart McGonagall was quite a different, if not so different, cat. Nightpaw was very right to think she wasn't a cat to rub her fur the wrong way. Firm and intelligent, the Forest deputy gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class. But first, she had to see Nightpaw and Redpaw into class when they were late by appearing in the form of a rabbit.

The two friends had arrived late to Transfiguration, relieved Thistleheart wasn't there yet. "Whew. Made it! Can you imagine the look on old Thistleheart's face if we were late?"

Just then, a rabbit that was sitting on the desk turned around to face them. It leaped down from the desk and, to their great surprise, transformed into a familiar tabby cat.

"Whoa!" Redpaw meowed to Thistleheart in awe as she padded towards them.

Thistleheart stared sternly down at them. "Well, thank you for that assessment, Mr. Weasley. Perhaps it would be more useful if I were to transfigure Mr. Potter and yourself into a wrist watch? That way, one of you might be on time."

Redpaw stared down at his paws. "We were late."

"Then perhaps a map? I'm sure you don't need one to find your seats," Thistleheart meowed. And they did just that, choosing two seats at the back.

Then she turned back to the class and meowed to the other cats, "Transfiguration is some of the most multifarious and risky magic you will learn at the Forest in your warrior career. Any cat that foolishly decides to mess around in my classroom will leave this class and they will not return. You have been warned." Then she changed her desk into a sheep and back again. The cats were very amazed and couldn't wait to get started, but they couldn't the furniture into other animals until they get older.

After taking a lot of difficult notes, they were each given a cotton ball and started trying to turn it into a tennis ball. By the end of the class, only Fawnpaw had made any difference to her cotton ball; Thistleheart showed the class how it had gone all hardened and bouncy and gave the light brown tabby she-cat a rare smile.

The class the cats really looked forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quailflight's lessons turned out to actually be a joke. His classroom smelled like garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a Strigoi vampire he had met in Germany and was scared it would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban had been given to him by an Egyptian pharaoh's cat as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome mummy, but they didn't believe this story a lot.

For one thing, when Sandpaw Finnigan asked to hear how Quailflight had fought off the Strigoi vampire, Quailflight squeaked and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a weird stink hung around the turban. Berrytail and Cherrynose said it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quailflight was protected wherever he went.

Nightpaw was very relieved and happy to find out that he wasn't sky-lengths behind everyone else. Like what Redpaw said, lots of cats had come from kittypet families and hadn't had any idea that they were warriors. There was so much to learn that even cats like Redpaw didn't have much of a head start.

**...**

But Friday...it was an important day for Nightpaw and Redpaw. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost for once. Nightpaw felt pathetic; other cats had found their way down on their own first days.

"_Eye of donkey, western pine,_

_Turn this water into wine."_

Nightpaw looked over to see Sandpaw tapping his glass of water with his tail-wand on his paw; the words he was meowing kept being heard over and over again. The sand-colored Manx looked into the goblet before repeating the spell he was saying.

Feeling a bit confused, Nightpaw asked Redpaw, "What's Sandpaw doing?"

"Trying to turn water into wine," Redpaw began. "He managed to turn grape juice into apple juice yesterday! Before..." But he stopped when an explosion left a soot-covered Sandpaw looking down at the glass.

"So what classes do we have today?" Nightpaw asked his friend as he slammed his paw down onto a scurrying mole on the ground and dropping it onto his Fruit Loops.

"We got double Potions with the ViperClan cats," Redpaw groaned with great dissatisfaction. "Brokenfang's the leader of ViperClan. They say he always favors them, so we get to see if it's true."

Nightpaw sighed along with him. Even though Thistleheart was revealed to be the leader of LionClan, this didn't stop her from giving her very own Clanmates a large pile of homework. "I wish Thistleheart could favor us."

Just then, the mail arrived, but Nightpaw got used to this now, but it gave him a shock on the first morning. _That's just weird, _he had thought to himself. He was startled when a hundred owls or so had suddenly flew into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages beside them.

So far still, Katara didn't bring Nightpaw anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nip his ear and have a bite of mouse before going off to sleep in the Owl Post Office with the other owls. This morning, however, she soared downwards right onto a piece of bacon and dropped a note onto Nightpaw's plate. The black cat tore it open at once. It said, in a quite messy scribble:

_Dear Nightpaw,_

_I know that you and your classmates have Friday afternoons off. So I was wonderin' if you'd like to come and have a mug of Joe with me around three._

_I wanna hear all about your first quarter-moon in the Forest. I bet it's excitin', eh? Send me an answer back with Katara._

_From, Badgerstripe_

Nightpaw borrowed Redpaw's quill (with permission), scribbled _Yes, please! See ya later! _on the back of the note, and sent Katara off again.

It was lucky that Nightpaw had a goblet of hot chocolate with Badgerstripe to look forward to. That was because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him yet. At the beginning feast, Nightpaw got the idea that Brokenfang just disliked him.

By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he was wrong. Brokenfang didn't dislike Nightpaw. He _hated _him.

**...**

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was much colder here than up in the main castle, and it would have been quite sinister enough without the pickled or dissected smaller animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

Brokenfang, like Shortlegs, started the class by taking the roll call, and he paused at Nightpaw's name just like Shortlegs did.

"Ah, yes," he meowed silkily. "Mr. Potter. Our new..._celebrity_."

Icepaw Malfoy and his friends Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw sneered at Nightpaw behind him, but he heard them and glared at them. Brokenfang finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were very dark amber just like Badgerstripe's, but they had none of the big black cat's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels before a train hit you.

"The reason you are here in this class is to learn the delicate science and precise art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a murmur, but they caught every word; like Thistleheart, the dark brown tabby tom had the gift of keeping a class silent without much effort at all.

"There will be no foolish tail-wand-waving or silly chants in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to value the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those fortunate few..." He looked over at Icepaw "...who possess the inclination... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and tangle the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."

Looking over at Nightpaw, who was just making notes, he added, "Then again, maybe some of you have come to the Forest in possession of abilities so tough you feel confident enough to _not. Pay. Attention!"_

More silence followed this miniature speech. While Nightpaw and Redpaw exchanged looks with raised brows, Fawnpaw was on the edge of her seat and looked frantic to prove she could answer his questions.

"Tell me this, Potter" Brokenfang meowed to him. "What would you get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

_Powdered root of what to an infusion of what now_? Nightpaw glanced at Redpaw, who shrugged and looked as bewildered as he was. He stayed silent, unable to remember what he had read over greenleaf. Meanwhile, Fawnpaw's right front paw shot into the air.

Brokenfang's brows raised while he ignored Fawnpaw's raised forepaw. "So you don't know? Well, let's try this again. If I told you to look for a bezoar, where would you look?"

Fawnpaw stretched her right front paw high into the air without even thinking of leaving her seat, but Nightpaw didn't have a clue about what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Icepaw, Lobsterpaw, and Monkeypaw, who were shaking with laughter. _Like they would know..._

Out loud, he meowed again, "I don't know, sir."

"So you thought you wouldn't have to look through an open book before coming here, eh, Potter? But what a pity. Clearly, fame isn't everything."

Nightpaw didn't reply, but he forced himself to stare right into those dark amber eyes. Of course he read the book called _One Thousand Magical Herbs_ at Daniel's house! Even Daniel, who seemed to not understand the warrior world, had tried to help him out with reading it. _Does he expect me to have read it all and remember it?_

Brokenfang was still ignoring Fawnpaw's trembling right front paw. "Potter, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

When he said this, Fawnpaw now got out of her seat and began hopping on her hind legs with her paw still in the air. Giving Fawnpaw a look, Nightpaw meowed to his mentor quietly with a hint of humor, "I don't know, sir. Why don't you go and ask Fawnpaw? She probably knows the answer."

A few cats let out some snorts of laughter; Nightpaw caught Sandpaw's eye, and the pale ginger tom winked at him and gave him a nod. Brokenfang, however, wasn't amused; in fact, he looked furious.

"Sit down," he barked at Fawnpaw and she did. "Potter, to let your brain know, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so potent it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it can save you from almost all poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Don't just stand there with your jaws open! Copy that down!"

There was a sudden fumbling for quills and rolls of scrolls. Over the clatter, Brokenfang added, "Oh, and a point will be taken from LionClan for your smart-mouth, Potter."

**...**

Things didn't improve for the LionClan cats as the Potions lesson continued. Brokenfang put them all into groups of two and set them to mixing up an easy potion to cure boils. He swept around with his dark brown tabby fur glowing black, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush crocodile fangs, passing bad judgment on almost everyone except for Icepaw, whom he seemed to like.

Nightpaw thought it was unfair. Aunt Tulip and Uncle Bristle always treated their son Tubby much better and spoiled him more than they did for him. But now, he didn't want to be pampered like a spoiled kittypet; he just wanted to be the best warrior he could be.

Brokenfang was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Icepaw had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Toadpaw had somehow managed to melt Sandpaw's pot into a warped globule, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning some of the hairs off of the cats' paws. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Toadpaw, who had been drenched in the potion when the pot collapsed, whimpered in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his body and legs.

"Idiot boy! I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Brokenfang snarled as he swept his tail over the spilled potion and wiping it away.

Toadpaw began to moan in pain and misery as boils started to pop up all over his nose and onto his paws.

"You, Finnigan, can take him up to the medicine cat's den," Brokenfang spat at Sandpaw, who obeyed almost at once. Then he rounded on Nightpaw and Redpaw, who were working next to Toadpaw. "And you, Potter, didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Think he wanted to make you feel better than he, eh? That's another point you lost for LionClan!"

Seething with rage, Nightpaw could believe that Brokenfang was being very unfair to him. But before he could complain or even slide out his claws, Redpaw pulled him back by the tail.

The American Shorthair meowed, "Nightpaw, don't pick fights with him. He can turn very nasty if he wants to, or so I heard."

As they padded up the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Nightpaw's mind was racing and his spirits were lower than a snake's belly. He had already lost two points for LionClan in his very first quarter-moon at the Forest. Why did Brokenfang hate him so much?

"Come on, buddy! Cheer up!" Redpaw reassured him as he nudged his shoulder. "You don't need to worry. He always takes points off of Berrytail and Cherrynose! Anyways, can I go with you to Badgerstripe's? I'd like to meet him."

**...**

At around five minutes to three, the two toms left the castle and made their way across the castle grounds. Badgerstripe lived in a timber cabin on the edge of the forbidden swamp. A crossbow and a pair of battle claws were outside the front door. Nightpaw tried not to flinch at the sight of that; he never thought of Badgerstripe as a fighter, but those were maybe there for self-defense.

When Nightpaw knocked on the door with his forepaw, they heard a frenzied scratching from inside and several loud booming barks. Then Badgerstripe's voice rang out, meowing, "_Back_, Marmaduke, _back_."

Badgerstripe's large broad head appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. "Just hang on a moment," he mewed. "_Back_, Duke." He let them in, struggling to keep his paw on the collar of a tall fawn-colored Great Dane.

There was just one room inside. Boars and ptarmigans were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a huge nest with a crazy-quilt over it. That was perhaps what the big black tom was knitting before the school year began.

"Go ahead and make yerselves at home." He finally let go of Marmaduke, who leaped straight at Redpaw, knocked him down, and started licking him all over. Like Badgerstripe, the Great Dane wasn't as ferocious as he looked.

"Badgerstripe, this is Redpaw. I met him on my way here to the Forest," Nightpaw told the big black cat, who was pouring some boiling water into a large coffee pot and putting rock-like cookies onto a plate.

Badgerstripe glanced at Redpaw's glowing ginger fur and meowed, "Another Weasley cat, huh? Well, it's nice to meet ya, Redpaw! I've spent a lotta my time tryin' to keep your twin brothers from enterin' the swamp!" he added with amusement.

The rock cookies were shapeless lumps with bits of pecan that almost broke their teeth, but Nightpaw and Redpaw pretended to enjoy them as they told Badgerstripe all about their first quarter-moon of lessons. And Marmaduke rested his large head on Nightpaw's tail and drooled all over it.

During their sips of coffee, the apprentices were happy to hear Badgerstripe call Oscar "that scrawny old idiot." "And as for that ferret of his, Mr. Sniffer, I'd like to introduce him to Marmaduke soon. Did you know that every time I go up to the castle, he'd follow me everywhere? But I can't get rid of him; Oscar puts him up to it."

Badgerstripe was told by Nightpaw about Brokenfang's Potions lesson. Just like Redpaw, Badgerstripe just told Nightpaw not to worry about it, that the dark tabby hated most of the apprentices.

"But he seemed to _hate _me."

"What a heap of mouse-dung!" Badgerstripe exclaimed. "Why should he?" However, Nightpaw couldn't help but to see that Badgerstripe didn't quite meet his green eyes when he said that. To Redpaw, the big tom meowed, "So, Redpaw, how's Clawfoot? He was great with other animals like Sky Bison. I liked him a lot."

Nightpaw wondered if Badgerstripe just changed the subject on purpose so that they couldn't hear it anymore. While Redpaw was telling Badgerstripe all about Clawfoot's work with animals of Africa, Nightpaw picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the mug. He laid it down on the table and gazed at it with interest. It was a cutting from the _Daily Warrior_:

_LIVERPOOL BANK BREAK-IN LATEST_

_Investigations carry on into the break-in at Liverpool Bank on July 31 2011, broadly believed to be the work of Dark warrior cats unknown. Liverpool monkeys today insisted that nothing was stolen. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day._

_"If you know what's best for you, you better keep your nose out of this! We're not going to tell you what was in there," said a Liverpool monkey this afternoon._

Nightpaw remembered Redpaw telling him on the train that someone had tried to steal from Liverpool, but the ginger tom didn't mentioned the date.

"Hey, Badgerstripe!" he meowed. "That Liverpool break-in happened on the day of my birthday! It might've happened while we were there!"

There was no doubt about it since Badgerstripe certainly didn't meet Nightpaw's eyes this time. He merely grunted and offered him another rock cookie. Nightpaw just shrugged and read the story again. _The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. _Badgerstripe emptied vault seven hundred and seventy-seven, if you call it emptying. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?

As Nightpaw and Redpaw went back to the castle for dinner, the pockets in their capes were weighed down with rock cookies they were too polite to reject. Nightpaw guessed that none of the lessons he got so far gave him as much to think about as coffee with Badgerstripe. Did the panther-like tom get that package out just in time? Where was it now? And did Badgerstripe know something about Brokenfang that Nightpaw didn't need to hear?

_To be continued..._

**...**

**Katara: So you named the Great Dane after the movie Marmaduke. (AvatarCat11 nods) And I see that you named Nightpaw's owl after me.**

**AvatarCat11: I know. I just wanted to name the owl a name that was kind, strong, and beautiful...just like you.**

**Katara: (Blushes and smiles) Thanks.**

**Holly: May I say the review thing this time?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure!**

**Holly: Thanks! (To the readers) Before I say it, I want to say that AvatarCat11 doesn't own the Marmaduke comics or movie. If you read and review, you'll get actual cookies like chocolate chip or whatever you want. Flames will be used to roast some S'Mores.**

**AvatarCat11: Wow. It's been a while since someone said that in my stories.**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly: See ya next time!**


	9. The Midnight Battle

**AvatarCat11: The three day weekend is almost over and I'm more than ready to update the Nightfang series! Plus, I hope Hermione forgives me for this because I've decided to let Fawnpaw be like a tomboy instead of being an annoying bookworm. (I am SO sorry, Hermione and your fans!).**

**Katara: Wait. Why'd you delete your other two Avatar Cat stories?**

**Holly: Yeah! I was starting to read the Book 2 story!**

**AvatarCat11: Sorry, but I was a bit too immature to add those while the first season went on, and I wanna get to Book 2 after I finish Book 1. Anyways, Jokegirl, would you like to say the disclaimer? You haven't said a disclaimer yet, but I'd like to let you try one.**

**Jokegirl: Sure! Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: The day when AvatarCat11 owns Harry Potter or Warrior Cats is when he becomes president, which is in...NEVER!**

**AvatarCat11: You're right. I think I'd make a bad president, anyways. You know...not focusing on my job?**

**Katara: I understand, AvatarCat.**

**Everyone in the room: Enjoy!**

**...**

_The Midnight Battle_

Before he met Icepaw, Nightpaw never knew any other kit that he hated besides Tubby. Of course he ticked him off on the train, but that didn't matter; he would've made a horrible friend. From that day onwards, they had become bitter enemies.

But still, first-year LionClan cats only had Potions with the ViperClan cats, so they didn't have to put up with Icepaw much...until they spotted a notice pinned up in the LionClan common room that made them all groan with disappointment. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday...and LionClan and ViperClan would learn together.

"Terrific. JUST terrific," Nightpaw muttered darkly. "It's just what I wanted. That's to make a fool of myself on a set of wings in front of Icepaw." He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else in the Forest.

"Hey, you don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," Fawnpaw meowed reasonably.

Redpaw gave her a weird look before adding to his friend, "Anyways, I know that Icepaw's been telling everyone about how good he is at AirBall, but I bet that's all talk and no teeth."

The black-&-silver tabby tom certainly did talk a lot about flying. He complained very loudly about first year apprentices never getting on the Clan AirBall teams and told long bragging stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Twolegs in giant metal birds.

But he wasn't the only one, though; the way Sandpaw told it, he had spent most of his kithood going like a bullet around the mountains of Alaska on a set of wings. Even Redpaw would tell anyone who would listen about the time he had almost hit a condor with Clawfoot's old set of wings. It seemed to Nightpaw that every cat from warrior families talked about AirBall all the time.

Redpaw already had a big argument with Cinderpaw, who shared their dormitory, about a Twoleg sport called soccer. Redpaw just couldn't see what fun there was about a game with only one ball and a cat couldn't participate. But Nightpaw had already caught the ginger tomcat poking at Cinderpaw's poster of the New York soccer team, trying to make the Twoleg players move.

Toadpaw had never been attached with a set of wings in his entire life because his grandmother didn't let him near one. In secret, Nightpaw agreed, because Toadpaw managed to have a large number of accidents even with all four paws on the ground. Fawnpaw was nearly as nervous about flying as Toadpaw was. Nightpaw knew that this was not something you could learn by heart out of a book...well, not that she tried. At breakfast on a sunny Thursday, she bored them all to death (not literally) with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called _AirBall Through the Ages_.

Toadpaw clung onto every word that she meowed, frantic for anything that might help him attach his wings to his back later, but all the other cats were exceedingly happy when the tabby she-cat's lecture was broken up by the arrival of the mail.

Besides the letter from Badgerstripe that Katara brought him, Nightpaw didn't receive any other bit of mail, and it was something that Icepaw seemed to notice, of course. His large great gray owl was always bringing him packages of sweets and cat treats from home, which he opened arrogantly at the ViperClan table. Reminded strongly of Tubby, Nightpaw tried to ignore him.

Meanwhile, a northern saw-whet owl brought Toadpaw a little package from his grandmother. He opened it animatedly with his canine teeth and showed the other cats a glass ball the size of a tennis ball, which seemed to be filled with white smoke.

"It's a Remember-Ball!" Fawnpaw explained to him. "I suppose that your grandma knows that you always forget things! This item tells you if there's something that you forgot to do. Look, you hold it tight like this in your paw, and if it turns red..." Toadpaw's face fell, because the Remember-Ball in his paw suddenly turned crimson, "…it means you forgot something."

Bu while Toadpaw was trying to remember what he had forgotten, Icepaw got up from his seat, padded by the LionClan table, and snatched it right from the Exotic Shorthair's paw. Hearing Toadpaw yelp with surprise, Nightpaw and Redpaw got to their feet, itching for a fight with the black-&-silver tabby. But Thistleheart got there first, for she could scent trouble better than the other cats.

"What's going on here?" she demanded when she approached them.

Redpaw pointed to Icepaw and meowed, "He snatched Toadpaw's Remember-Ball."

"I was just looking, Weasley," Icepaw sneered, but he did put the Remember-Ball back down on the table and padded away with his bodyguards following him.

**...**

At three 'o'clock that afternoon, Nightpaw, Redpaw, and the other LionClan cats rushed down the front steps onto the grounds for their first-ever flying lesson. It was a clear, windy day, and the long grass flowed under their paws as they padded down the sloping lawns toward a flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden swamp, whose trees were swaying slyly in the distance.

The ViperClan cats were already there, and so were twenty sets of wings lying in neat lines on the ground. Nightpaw heard Berrytail and Cherrynose Weasley protest about the school wings, saying that some of them vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.

Their flying mentor, Clearwing Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray tabby fur, and yellow eyes just like a hawk.

"Good afternoon, everyone!" she called out. When everyone finished their greetings, she went on, "Today, I will teach you how to summon your wings into the air and teach you basic flying skills. Well, what're you all waiting for? Everyone get near a set of wings!"

Nightpaw and his classmates did just that, and Nightpaw glanced down at his set of wings. The wings were quite old and some of the feathers stuck out at odd angles.

"Now stick out your right front paw over your wings," called Clearwing at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP!" all the cats shouted. Nightpaw's wings jumped onto his back and fastened themselves there at once, but it was one of the few that did.

Fawnpaw's wings just rolled around, Redpaw's wings hit him on the face, and Toadpaw's didn't move at all. Nightpaw had seen horses sensing fear in a Twoleg's voice and they could act disobedient at that; since Toadpaw had a quiver in his voice, he seemed to be frightened of flying and he seemed to want to keep all four paws on the ground.

Clearwing then showed them how to flap their wings without sliding them slipping off, and padded up and down the rows correcting their grips. Nightpaw and Redpaw were happy when she told Icepaw that he was doing it wrong for years.

"Now when I blow this whistle, you kick off from the ground and do it hard," Clearwing meowed. "Just keep your wings aloft and steady, rise a few tail-lengths off the ground, and then come straight back down by leaning forward a little. On my whistle…three...two...one..."

But Toadpaw, nervous and frightened and scared of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle was blown. Then his wings suddenly flapped hard and the poor brown tabby was zooming all around the grounds, wailing in fear.

"Mr. Longbottom, get back here at once!" Clearwing shouted, running under his shadow, but Toadpaw was zooming all around like a dragonfly at around twelve feet to twenty feet. Nightpaw saw his scared flat face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways out of the wings, bounce off of the balcony of the castle, and...

WHAM! A thud and a nasty break of bones occurred as Toadpaw fell to the ground, alive but injured on the green grass. Meanwhile, the wings were rising higher and they were now flapping off into the forbidden swamp and out of sight.

Clearwing was bending over Toadpaw, her face as shocked as his was. "Broken back leg. Tsk, tsk, tsk," Nightpaw heard her mumble. "Come on, young one. It's okay. Up you go." She turned to the rest of the class. "You are not to move while I take this cat to the medicine cat's den! If I see one pair of wings in the sky, you'll be out of here before you can say 'AirBall!' Come on, child."

Toadpaw, his face tear-streaked and terrified, his amber eyes filled with pain, limped off with Clearwing, who was licking his ears to keep him calmed down.

But as soon as those two were they out of hearing, Icepaw began to burst into laughter. "Did you see the stupid kit's face?"

"Shut up, Icepaw!" Rosepaw Patil, a Siamese she-cat of LionClan, spat. Nightpaw agreed.

However, a very ugly pug-faced she-cat named Pugpaw sneered, "Ooohhh, you sticking up for Longbottom now, Patil? I never knew you like little scaredy cats!"

"Look!" Icepaw called out, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's grandma sent to him." The Remember-Ball glittered in the sun as he held it up in his jaws. "I'm glad we got our paws onto this when he dropped down! Maybe he shouldn't learn to land on his paws; maybe he should learn to land on his fat ass!"

"Give it here, Icepaw!" Nightpaw suddenly meowed firmly, surprising himself. Everyone stopped talking to watch the two tomcats.

Icepaw stared at him as if he were just a bug and gave him a nasty sneer. "No way! I'll leave this somewhere for Longbottom to find. How about...up on a roof?"

Nightpaw snarled, "Give it here!" But Icepaw already leapt onto his broomstick and took off, his wings flapping like crazy. _He wasn't lying,_ Nightpaw thought with some kind of dread. _He _could_ fly well after all._ Hovering level with the topmost branches of an old pine tree, he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"

Nightpaw began to flap his wings and was ready for takeoff when a figure pushed him away. It was Fawnpaw with an angry and scared look in her amber eyes.

"No way, Nightpaw!" she growled. "You heard what Clearwing said! You'll get us all into trouble! Besides, you don't even know how to fly!"

_Like that matters!_ Nightpaw thought indignantly. Ignoring her, he could feel the blood heating up his ears. He flapped his wings and kicked hard off of the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his black coat, and his cape billowed out behind him. And in a flash of fierce delight, he realized he had found something he could do without being taught at all. This was so easy, this was so _wonderful_.

He could hear Fawnpaw sigh and mutter from below, "What an idiot."

Feeling more uplifted, he flapped his wings harder to take himself even higher, and he could hear screeches and gasps of she-cats back on the ground and an admiring howl from Redpaw. He let his wings relax and he turned around sharply to face Icepaw in midair. The black-&-silver tabby tom looked very stunned.

Nightpaw called out, "Icepaw, if you don't give that back, I'll claw those wings off your back!"

"Really?" Icepaw retorted, trying to sneer, but he was looking quite worried.

By some sudden instinct, Nightpaw knew just what to do. He leaned forward and flapped his wings ever harder than before, and he flew toward Icepaw like a falcon. His rival only just got out of the way in time; Nightpaw made a sharp U-turn and held himself steady. A few cats below were cheering and purring with delight.

"Your 'little' friends aren't up here to save your neck!" Nightpaw called in a teasing tone.

The same thought seemed to have struck Icepaw, for he suddenly shouted. "Have it your way, then!" and he kicked the glass ball right toward the castle and streaked back toward the ground.

Nightpaw saw the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leaned forward and flapped his wings even harder. The next second, he was gathering speed in a spinning circle, racing the ball. Wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screeches of cats watching him; he stretched out his head, just a kit-length from the castle. And he caught it in his jaws, just in time to spread out his wings to steady himself, and he flapped gently onto the grass with the Remember-Ball clutched safely in his jaws.

But when almost the entire crowd was cheering, a sudden shout made his heart stop with dread.

"NIGHTPAW POTTER!" Thistleheart was padding to them, her green eyes wide with shock and Nightpaw felt his heart sink faster than his dive. "Never...after all this time...in the Forest..."

Nightpaw got to his feet, feeling his paws tremble. Thistleheart was almost speechless with shock, and her emerald green eyes were flashing furiously, "...how...how _dare _you! You could have broken your neck up there!"

"It wasn't his fault, Thistleheart..."

"Be quiet, Miss Patil!"

"But Icepaw..."

"That's _enough_, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me. Now."

Nightpaw got up and followed the deputy while Redpaw gave him a sympathetic glance. But he caught sight of the triumphant faces of Icepaw, Lobsterpaw, and Monkeypaw as he left, walking torpidly in Thistleheart's pawsteps as she prowled toward the castle. He knew that he was going to be exiled from the Forest, he just knew it.

He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there was something wrong with his voice. Thistleheart was padding along without even turning around to look at him; he had to run to keep up with her. Now he did it. He didn't even last for even a half-moon. He would be packing his bags in just ten minutes. What would the Dursley cats and Daniel say when he turned up on the doorstep? Daniel would welcome him back, but his cats wouldn't.

They went up the front steps and up the marble staircase inside and Thistleheart still didn't say anything to him. She pushed open doors and stalked along corridors with Nightpaw scampering sadly behind her. Maybe she would take him to Silverstar. He thought of Badgerstripe, exiled but allowed to stay on as the gamekeeper. Perhaps he'd be Badgerstripe's helper. His stomach twisted with misery as he imagined it, watching Redpaw and the others becoming warriors, while he moped around the grounds carrying Badgerstripe's bag and being a loner. The thought of that was enough to make him sick.

Thistleheart stopped outside a classroom. Then she opened the door with her muzzle and poked her head inside. "Excuse me, Quailflight, could I borrow Treebranch Wood for a moment?"

_Treebranch?_ Nightpaw thought to himself, feeling quite bewildered; was Treebranch Wood a stick she was going to hit him with?

"Why, yes. Yes you can," Quailflight replied, holding up some kind of praying mantis on top of his head.

Then it was revealed that Treebranch Wood turned out to be a cat, a sturdy fifth-year light brown tabby Norwegian Forest tom who came out of the class and looking bewildered.

"Follow me, you two," Thistleheart told the two tomcats, and they padded on up the corridor. While they did so, Treebranch gave Nightpaw a very curious look.

"In here." The Forest deputy pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for the Joker, who was busy writing very rude words on the blackboard. "Out of here!" she barked. The Joker just threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged noisily, and he swooped out, cursing his favorite curse words. Thistleheart sighed, shut the door behind him, and turned to face the two tomcats.

She took a deep breath and meowed happily, "Potter, this is Treebranch Wood. Wood...I have found you a new Seeker for the LionClan AirBall team!"

Treebranch's expression changed from one of confusion to one of delight. "Are you...are you serious, Thistleheart? Are you sure?"

"Yes, very absolutely," the pale brown tabby mewed crisply. "This child is a pure natural player! I've never seen anything like it in my entire career at the Forest! Was that your first time ever on a set of wings, Potter?"

Nightpaw nodded silently, for he didn't have a clue about what was going on. But the good news was that he didn't seem to get exiled, and some of the good windy feeling started coming back to his legs and his fur.

"He caught that Remember-Ball in his jaws after a fifty-foot circle spin," the pale brown deputy told Treebranch. "He didn't even scratch or hurt himself! And even Clawfoot Weasley couldn't have done it better than he!"

The large light brown tabby tom was now looking as though all of his dreams had just come true immediately. "Hey, Potter. Have you ever seen a game of AirBall before?" he asked the black cat with excitement in his voice.

"Wood's the captain of the LionClan AirBall team," Thistleheart explained when the confused Nightpaw shook his head.

"He's just the right build for a Seeker, too," Treebranch told her, now circling Nightpaw and even looking him up and down. "Light and fast... He may get taller and bigger as he grows, but he'll be a great addition to the team! Now all we have to do is to get him a decent set of wings, ma'am. Maybe an Icarus Three Thousand or a Sweeper Seven, I daresay."

Thistleheart nodded to him and meowed, "Well, I shall ask Silverstar if we could just bend the first-year rule for just this once. StarClan knows that we need a better team than the one from last year. We were so_ flattened _in that last match by ViperClan that I couldn't look Brokenfang in the face for a moon! Potter," she continued, staring down at him sternly, "I want to hear that you'll train hard or I really MIGHT punish you."

But suddenly, she gave him a smile as she purred, "Darkfire would be so proud of you, Nightpaw. He himself was an excellent mastermind when it came to AirBall."

**...**

"You must be joking!" Redpaw exclaimed.

It was dinnertime in the Great Hall and Nightpaw just finished telling Redpaw about what had happened when he had left the grounds with Thistleheart. Redpaw had a piece of fried chicken halfway to his mouth, but he forgot all about it as he dropped it.

"You're the new Seeker?" the ginger tom asked him with amazement. "Wow! But first-year apprentices never...you're probably the youngest player in around..."

Nightpaw chewed up his teriyaki chicken and finished for him, "…around a hundred years or so. Treebranch told me." After all the excitement that had happened today, he was very hungry, as hungry as a badger; plus, the spinning move tired him out.

Redpaw was so amazed and so impressed that he just sat and gaped at Nightpaw. "I start my training next quarter-moon," the Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix told him. "Just don't tell anyone because Treebranch wants to keep it a secret."

"Got it," Redpaw purred. But then, to their astonishment, Berrytail and Cherrynose Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Nightpaw, and hurried over.

"Good job there!" Cherrynose whispered to him in a low voice. "Treebranch just finished telling us. We're on the team too; we're Thrashers."

Berrytail flicked his tail at his brother and added, "We are so gonna win that AirBall trophy for sure this year. We haven't won since our brother Clawfoot left, but this year's team is going to be different and awesome! You must be so good, Nightpaw! Treebranch was almost prancing on his hind legs when he told us."

Cherrynose nodded in agreement and then added, "Anyways, we have to go now. Quicktongue Jordan thinks he's found a new underground passageway out of the castle. See ya later!"

But Berrytail and Cherrynose hardly disappeared from sight when a cat far less welcome to them turned up: Icepaw, who was flanked by Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw.

The British Shorthair turned to Nightpaw and sneered, "So, Potter...you're having your own last supper? Are you ready to get back on the train back to the kittypets?"

"I suppose you're braver now, thanks to having your little friends with you," Nightpaw retorted coolly. There was, of course, nothing at all little about Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw. But since the Great Table was full of senior warriors, both of them could do more than lash their short tails and scowl.

Icepaw gave him a weird look and replied icily, "Oh, but I can take you on anytime you want. I'll be excited to sharpen my claws on you, Potter. We'll do this tonight. A warrior battle. We'll use tail-wands, claws, and teeth." Seeing the disconcerted look on Nightpaw's face, Icepaw sneered, "What the matter, Potter? Never heard of a battle?"

"Of course he has!" Redpaw snapped, taking a step forward. "I'll be his substitute. What about you?"

"Mine will be Lobsterpaw," Icepaw replied, glancing at his companions, who lashed their tails even more. "Will moonhigh be okay? We'll meet you down in the trophy room; that's always unlocked no matter what part of the day it is."

When Icepaw and his cronies were gone just out of sight, Redpaw and Nightpaw looked around at each other. "What's a warrior battle?" Nightpaw asked his American Shorthair friend. "And what do you mean, you're my substitute?"

"Well, a substitute's only there to take over your spot if you die," Redpaw meowed casually, getting started at last on his cold chicken. When he saw the look on Nightpaw's face, he added quickly, "But cats only die in proper battles, you know, with real warriors. The most you and Icepaw will be able to do is send sparks at each other and bat at each other with your paws. Neither of you knows enough magic to inflict any genuine injuries. I think he expected you to refuse, anyway."

"What'll I do if I flick my tail-wand and nothing happens?"

"Easy. Just claw him on the face! It's what warriors do!"

"Excuse me." Fawnpaw had arrived and the two toms looked up at her.

Redpaw rolled his blue eyes and groaned, "Aw, come on! Can't a cat eat in peace at this place now?"

The light brown tabby Angora mix ignored him and spoke to Nightpaw instead. "I couldn't help but listen in on what you and Icepaw Malfoy were saying to each other..."

"Oh, I bet you could," Redpaw muttered.

"Yeah?" Nightpaw asked her, not liking where this was going.

"But what I'm trying to say is that you can't go wandering around the castle at night just because you feel like it," Fawnpaw retorted. "Just think of the points you'll lose for LionClan if you're caught, and you're really likely to get caught. It's really selfish and careless of you."

_What's it to you anyways?_ Nightpaw thought mutinously. His black fur could blend in so very perfectly in the mysterious shadows of the castle. Out loud, he retorted, "I'm sorry, but it's also really none of your business."

"Good-bye," Redpaw finished for him.

**...**

It wasn't quite what you'd call a good way to end the day as Nightpaw lay awake much later listening to Cinderpaw and Sandpaw falling asleep (Toadpaw hadn't returned from the medicine cat den). Redpaw had spent all evening giving him battle advice such as if he tried to curse him, he better evade it, because Redpaw himself couldn't remember how to block them.

There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by either Oscar or Mr. Sniffer, and Nightpaw felt he was pushing the boundary, breaking another school rule today. On the other paw, Icepaw's short sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness. This was his big chance to beat the black-&-silver tabby tom head to head. He couldn't miss this, the perfect chance for revenge.

"It's now half past eleven," Redpaw murmured at last. "Let's go."

They picked up their tail-wands and crept across the tower room, down the twisting stairway, and into the LionClan common room. A few embers were still glowing in the hearth, turning all the armchairs into deformed black shadows. They almost got to the picture hole when a voice meowed from the chair nearest to them:

"You're so stupid to do this, Nightpaw."

A lamp flickered on and Fawnpaw was sitting there with a ruffled pelt, tired amber eyes, and a frown.

"_You!_" Redpaw spat furiously. "Get back to your nest!"

"I will after this is over," the Angora mix snapped. "I almost told Sandthorn about your little plan. He's a prefect and he'll be able to put a stop to this."

Nightpaw couldn't find a cat that could be so interfering. Fawnpaw was acting just as a pain in the tail as his Aunt Tulip and Uncle Bristle, but not as much as them. "Let's go," he mewed to Redpaw. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Queen and the two tomcats climbed through the hole.

But Fawnpaw wasn't really ready to give up without difficulty. She followed Redpaw through the portrait hole, growling at them like an angry bulldog.

"I bet that you care only about yourselves and yourselves only!" she snarled. "I'm not gonna let ViperClan win the Clan trophy while taking this lying down! You two will lose the points I got from Thistleheart for performing the Switching Spells!"

Redpaw just meowed, "Get lost."

Fawnpaw's wiry fur bristled and it looked like she was creating electricity. "Fine. Okay. But I warned you. Don't come crying to me if you get chased out of the castle. You two are just the biggest..."

But Nightpaw didn't get to find out what he and Redpaw were the biggest what, for Fawnpaw turned to the portrait of the Fat Queen to get back inside and found herself facing an empty work of art. The Fat Queen must've gone on a nighttime visit to another painting and Fawnpaw was locked out of the LionClan tower.

"Aww man!" she moaned with fright. "Now what'll I do?"

"Not our problem," Redpaw meowed indifferently. "Nightpaw, we have got to go or we're both gonna be late."

They didn't even reach the end of the corridor when Fawnpaw caught up with them. "I'm coming with you guys," she told them, panting.

Redpaw whirled around to face her, growling, "Oh no you won't!"

"You don't really think I'm going to stand out here like a statue and wait for Oscar to catch me, do you? If he finds all three of us out of our nests, I could tell him what's going on and you can back me up."

"You little..."

"Shut up, the both of you!" Nightpaw snapped, flicking his tail at them sharply. He had heard some kind of snuffling noise from around the corner. "I think I heard something."

Redpaw squinted through the dark and breathed, "Mr. Sniffer?"

As Nightpaw wondered why Mr. Sniffer would be around here, he turned the corner and saw that it wasn't the ferret lurking around. Instead, Toadpaw was lying there and he was fast asleep curled up tightly in a ball of fur.

Nightpaw took one step nearer and Toadpaw lifted his head straight away, his amber eyes fully awake. "Nightpaw! Thank StarClan you found me! I was out here for hours because I couldn't remember the password! I just wanna go to bed."

Redpaw waved his tail at him for silence and then spoke, "Toadpaw, keep your voice low. The password is now Owl Gizzard, but it can't help you right now. The Fat Queen's gone off on one of her night visits."

"So how's your leg?" Nightpaw asked the Exotic Shorthair.

"It's fine," Toadpaw replied, showing them his leg wrapped in cobwebs. "Poppyleaf mended it in just around a minute."

"Good! Look, Toadpaw, we've got to be somewhere. See ya later."

Toadpaw leaped awkwardly to his paws and gasped, "Please don't leave me here! I don't wanna stay here alone anymore! The Gory Gaunt's been around this spot already!"

Redpaw looked at the moon shining through the window and then glared angrily at Fawnpaw and Toadpaw. Nightpaw could tell that even if they didn't want to come along, they had to for the time being. Other than that, they would have to delay the battle a bit more.

Anyways, Redpaw snapped, "Fine! Okay! But I'm warning you: If one of you ever gets us so caught red-pawed (no pun intended), I will not rest on my butt until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies attack that Quailflight told us about in class and used it on the both of you."

Fawnpaw looked like she was just on the verge of telling Redpaw precisely how to use the Curse of the Bogies attack, but Nightpaw hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them with his tail all forward.

They flew along passageway after passageway striped with bars of moonlight from the very high windows. At every turn, Nightpaw expected to run into Oscar or Mr. Sniffer, but however, the three apprentices were lucky. They padded up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.

It seemed that Icepaw and Lobsterpaw weren't there yet, but the gemstone trophy cases shined where the moonlight caught them. Trophies, shields, daggers, and statues shone silver and gold in the darkness. They padded along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either side of the room. Nightpaw unsheathed his claws just in case Icepaw leapt in and started the fight right away.

The minutes crept by slower than a caterpillar. "The idiot's late. Maybe he's wimped out," Redpaw whispered to Nightpaw.

Then a noise in the next room made them jump to their toes. Nightpaw only just bared his teeth and extended his claws further when they heard someone speak...but it wasn't Icepaw.

"Sniff around, my friend. They might be lurking in a corner."

It was Oscar speaking to his scrawny ferret. Terrified, Nightpaw sheathed his claws and waved his tail frantically at the other cats to follow him as quickly as they can; they raced noiselessly toward the door, away from Oscar's voice. Toadpaw's tail just barely slipped around the corner when they heard Oscar enter the trophy room.

"They're in here somewhere," they heard him grumble, "probably hiding."

"Guys, come this way!" Nightpaw mouthed to the other cats and, frightened, they began to slink down a long corridor full of suits of armor; they could hear Oscar padding closer. The awkward Toadpaw suddenly let out a frightened squeal and broke into a limping run, but he tripped, got Redpaw around the neck, and the two cats tumbled right into a suit of armor. The clanging and crashing were enough to awaken the whole school.

"RUN!" Nightpaw yowled.

And the four of them ran down the gallery, not seeing whether Oscar was following. They ran around the doorpost and pounced from one corridor to another in the trees with Nightpaw in the lead, not having any idea where they were or where they were going. They leaped right through a drapery and found themselves in a hidden hallway, hurtled along it, and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles away from the trophy room.

"I think we lost him," Nightpaw panted, sitting down on the cold ground and licking his paw. Toadpaw was crouching low, wheezing and sputtering.

"I..._told..._you," Fawnpaw gasped, gulping to catch her breath. "I... told...you...so..."

Redpaw groaned and growled, "We don't have time for that! We need to go on back to the LionClan tower as soon as possible!"

Fawnpaw rolled her amber eyes and retorted, "Looks like I'm gonna have to be the one to say this, don't I? Well, here it goes: Icepaw tricked you, Nightpaw! He was never going to meet you. Oscar knew someone was going to be in the trophy room. Icepaw must have tipped him off."

Nightpaw realized that she was right after all, but since Fawnpaw had been so very annoying that he wasn't going to admit that she was right. She would bounce over the walls in victory if he told her that. "Let's go."

It wasn't going to be that simple, unfortunately. They hadn't gone more than twelve pawsteps when a doorknob rattled and something shot out of a classroom in front of them. It was the Joker. When he saw the apprentices, the small black demon cat let out a squeal of glee.

"Joker, shut up!" Redpaw hissed. "Please! You're gonna get us exiled!"

But all that Joker did was cackle and say in a singsong voice, ""Wandering around at moonhigh, Wittle Firsties? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

Nightpaw shook his head and meowed, "But we'll only gut caught if you give us away, Joker. Please!"

"Should tell Oscar, I should," Joker told the three cats in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered very wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get the hell out of the way!" Redpaw snapped, taking a claw swipe at the Joker. But Nightpaw realized that this was a very big mistake.

The Joker snickered mischievously, gave them a triumphant glare, and bellowed very loudly, "APPRENTICES OUT OF THEIR NESTS! APPRENTICES OUT OF THEIR NESTS AND DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Ducking under Joker, the three cats dashed for their lives, right to the end of the passageway where they slammed into a door...but it was locked.

"This is it!" Redpaw moaned, as they pushed weakly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!" They could hear footsteps and Oscar was rushing as fast as he could toward the Joker's yowling.

"If you're not gonna do something about it, then allow me!" Fawnpaw growled. She tapped the door with Nightpaw's tail-wand, which she borrowed quickly, and meowed, "_Alohomora!_"

The lock clicked and the door swung open; they rushed through it, shut it as quickly as possible, and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go, Joker?" Oscar was meowing to the poltergeist. "Quick, tell me."

"Say 'please.'"

"Don't you dare joke around with me, Joker! Now _where did they go_?" Oscar was hissing.

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," the Joker meowed in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right. _Please_."

"NOTHING! Ha ha! I told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha ha ha Haaaaaa!"

_He can be brilliant sometimes, can't he?_ Nightpaw mused to himself as the three cats heard the sound of Joker swooping away and Oscar was cursing in anger.

"He thinks that the door's locked," Nightpaw whispered to him companions. "I think we'll be okay...get _off_, Toadpaw!" The brown tabby tom had been tugging on the tip of Nightpaw's tail for the last minute. "_What_?"

The black Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix turned around and he saw, rather obviously, what. For a moment, he felt that he was prowling into a nightmare. This was way too much, on top of everything that happened so far. They weren't in a room, as he had supposed; of course they were in a passageway, but they were in the forbidden passageway on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden to all cats.

They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dragon, a dragon that filled the whole space between the ceiling and the ground. It had a silvery-white armor-like body, three necks, and three heads. It had three pairs of blazing angry blue eyes, a long thrashing tail lashing in the direction of the cats, and three pairs of huge jaws, saliva hanging in slippery slimy ropes from razor-sharp white teeth.

It was standing quite still, all six blue eyes staring at them, and Nightpaw realized that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken the monster by surprise. But it was quickly getting over that and there was no mistaking what those murderous growls meant.

All four cats gave a screech of terror and grabbed for the doorknob; Nightpaw had to choose where to face death or receive a punishment from Oscar and he chose to face Oscar. _Just get us out of here!_

They fell backward; Nightpaw slammed the door shut, and they sprung, almost flew, back down the passageway. Oscar probably ran off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared. All that the four cats wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that dragon. They didn't stop running until they reached the picture of the Fat Queen on the seventh floor.

"Where in StarClan's name have you four been?" she asked, looking at their ruffled pelts and their exhausted faces.

"Never mind about that! Just...Owl Gizzard, Owl Gizzard," Nightpaw huffed, and the picture swung forward.

The four cats scrambled into the common room and collapsed heavily, trembling, into their own armchairs. It was a while before any of them said anything. Also, Toadpaw looked as if he would never speak again.

"What in the name of StarClan do they think they're doing, keeping an animal like that locked up in a school?" Redpaw finally broke the silence. "If any dragon needs any exercise, that one certainly does."

Fawnpaw just got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "Are the two of you so blind?" the light brown tabby she-cat snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"Was it the floor?" Nightpaw suggested, tipping his head to one side. "Uh...I was just looking at the heads."

"Um, NO," Fawnpaw retorted, lashing her tail. "It was standing on a trapdoor. I think it may be guarding something!" Then she leaped off the chair and padded away from them, growling over her shoulder, "I hope you're happy, you guys. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get some shut-eye before one of you comes up with an _ingenious_ plan to get us exiled or killed."

Redpaw just stared after her with his mouth wide open. Then the ginger tom shook his head and retorted silently, "She _really_ needs to set her priorities straight."

But Nightpaw realized that, as he got back into his nest, Fawnpaw had just given him something important to think about. That dragon was definitely guarding something, but... but what did Badgerstripe say earlier? The Liverpool Bank was the safest place in the world for something that you wanted to keep safe...except maybe the Forest. And he seemed to realize what that little package in Vault Seven Hundred and Seventy Seven really was.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: It looks like this chapter is finished, but I do not own the dragon on here. This dragon is in fact a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh. This is Seto Kaiba's special monster.**

**Holly: That monster reminds me of Moo.**

**Katara: Don't worry, Holly. Moo won't hurt you anymore. How about we go along to the review thing?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure! (To the readers) I wish that someone can review soon. That way I can give them a virtual bucket of Reesees Peanut Butter Cups products like the Peanut Butter Trees, Peanut Butter Eggs, and the likes.**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly: See ya next time!**


	10. Halloween Night

**AvatarCat11: We're nearly at the end of Avatar Cat since we've started the first part of the finale right now, but I'd like to start this new chapter of the Nightfang series first.**

**Katara: Won't that take a while?**

**AvatarCat11: Yeah, but just be patient. So Holly's still away from now?**

**Katara: Yeah, but she'll be okay. Anyways, how about we let Jokegirl do the disclaimer?**

**Jokegirl: I'm already here! And yes, I'd like to say it!**

**Disclaimer: He's already told you that there's no way that he'll ever own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats! Thank you! (Leaves the room)**

**AvatarCat11 and Katara: Enjoy!**

**...**

_Halloween Night_

Nightpaw was happy to see Icepaw astonished to see the other two cats still in the Forest, tired but still happy. Indeed, by the next morning, Nightpaw and Redpaw thought that the meeting with the three-headed dragon was an outstanding adventure, and they were quite eager to have another one.

"That thing it's guarding is either valuable or risky," the ginger tom meowed.

"Or maybe both," Nightpaw added.

But besides the only thing the two of them knew about the strange object was that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much of a chance of guessing what it was without further clues.

Neither Toadpaw nor Fawnpaw showed any of the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dragon and the trapdoor. All that Toadpaw cared about was to never ever go near those two ever again. Meanwhile, Fawnpaw was now refusing to speak to both Nightpaw and Redpaw, but she was such a bossy bigheaded tomboy that they saw this as an added bonus.

All they needed was to get back at Icepaw for his trickery. And that brought great delight to them when such a thing arrived to them in the mail a quarter-moon later...

**...**

As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, the cats' attention was caught at once by a large package carried by six large spotted owls. Nightpaw was just as interested as the others to see what was in this large package and he was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of him, knocking his scrambled eggs to the floor.

They had hardly just flown out of the way and out the window when Katara swopped in and dropped a letter on top of the parcel. To his luck, Nightpaw ripped open the letter first because it said:

_To Mr. Nightpaw Potter,_

_DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE._

_This package contains your new Icarus Three Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a set of wings in the Hall or they'll all want one too. Treebranch Wood will meet you tonight on the AirBall field at seven p.m. sharp for your first training session._

_From, Thistleheart McGonagall_

Nightpaw had some kind of difficulty hiding his excitement as he looked over at the mentors' table, where Thistleheart was patting Katara on the head with her paw and giving her owner a warm nod. Then he handed the note to Redpaw to read.

"Great StarClan! It's an Icarus Three Thousand!" Redpaw moaned resentfully. "I haven't even _touched _one before! Can I see it with you?"

Nightpaw nodded to his friend, eager to see the wings just as much as he was.

They left the Great Hall quickly, wanting to unwrap the set of wings in private before their first class, but halfway across the entrance hall they found the way upstairs blocked up by Icepaw, who was flanked by Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw. The black-&-silver tabby tom seized the package from Nightpaw and felt it.

He tossed the wings back to Nightpaw with a mixture of envy and malice on his broad face. "Those are wings, Potter. You're gonna get busted big-time for this! First year apprentices can't have them!"

"Those aren't just any wings!" Redpaw loyally defended his friend, unable to hide his delight. "That's an Icarus Three Thousand! So what'd you say you have at home? A small Asteroid Three Sixty?" To Nightpaw, he purred, "Asteroids may look flashy, but they're not as up to par as the Icarus Three Thousand!"

"What would _you_ know about wings, Weasley?" Icepaw snapped at the American Shorthair hatefully. "You couldn't even afford to buy the bones of the wings! I suppose that you and your filthy brothers have to save up feather by feather!"

But before the fur could fly, Shortlegs was already padding toward them. "Good morning, you three! I hope there's no fighting?"

Icepaw immediately meowed, "Potter's got a set of wings!" Then he stepped behind him and gave Nightpaw a nasty sneer.

But Shortlegs was smiling up at Nightpaw and he purred, "Oh yes, yes, yes! I've heard all of it straight from Thistleheart. She was the one who told me about the special conditions. So Potter, what kind of wings do you have?"

"Icarus Three Thousand, sir," Nightpaw meowed, purring as the nasty sneer on Icepaw's face became one of shock and an ugly rage. "But it's thanks to Icepaw that I got them!"

Dipping his head to his Charms mentor and giving his rival a triumphant smile, he and Redpaw raced away from them upstairs, laughing at the confusion and anger on the British Shorthair's face. When they got to the very top of the sandstone staircase, Nightpaw chuckled to his comrade.

"It's true, after all! I wouldn't be on the AirBall team if Icepaw didn't snatch away Toadpaw's Remember-Ball!"

"Oh, so now you got a reward for breaking the rules? Oh, whoop-dee-do!"

An annoyed sarcastic voice from behind them made them stop talking quickly. Nightpaw scented the scent of Fawnpaw and there she was, her light brown tabby wiry fur bristling and her amber eyes glaring at the package.

"Were you just not speaking to us?" Nightpaw asked her politely.

Redpaw put in, "Yeah! Please don't stop now! It's getting good!"

Fawnpaw didn't say anything else, but she stalked away from them, shaking her head and twitching her bristling tail.

Even though he tried his hardest to pay attention in his classes, Nightpaw had a really hard time concentrating all day. His mind was always padding up the stairs to the bedrooms, where his set of wings laid on his bed. His mind was also wandering to the AirBall arena where his lessons would be held at.

Around that afternoon, he chowed down quickly on his dinner without even noticing what he was eating. And then he rushed quickly upstairs with Redpaw and avoiding crashing into other cats to unwrap the Icarus Three Thousand at last. They finally made it and quickly tore the paper off of it.

"Wow," Redpaw sighed as the set of wings rolled onto Nightpaw's bedding.

Even Nightpaw, who knew nothing about the different colors or types of wings, thought that the wings looked wonderful and beautiful. Sleek and shiny with long golden feathers, the wings had a good wingspan of around seven feet across and the letters _Icarus Three Thousand_ written in gold right on the tip of one wing.

**...**

As seven o'clock drew nearer every minute, Nightpaw left the castle and prowled off into the twilight toward the AirBall field. He had never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the audience could be high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three bright golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Nightpaw of the little sticks Twoleg kits blew some bubbles through, except that they were huge and around fifty feet high.

Too eager to fly again to wait for Treebranch, Nightpaw connected the wings to his back and lifted himself off from the ground. _What a feeling!_ he thought as he swooped in and out of the goal posts and sped up and down the field. The Icarus Three Thousand let out golden sparkles whenever they flapped and the feathers let the wind carry it easily.

"Hey, Potter! Come on down!"

Treebranch Wood had finally arrived. The big light brown tabby tom was pulling a large wooden crate by the handle of a wagon. Nightpaw scented him arriving and landed next to him.

"Very nice," Treebranch praised him, his amber eyes luminous. "I see what Thistleheart told me about. You're a natural after all! Just like your dad! Now I'm gonna teach you the basic rules this evening, and then you'll be joining the team practice three times a quarter-moon."

He opened the crate and Nightpaw looked inside to see four different-sized balls.

"All right, then," Treebranch meowed. "Now listen: AirBall is quite easy enough to understand, even if it's not the easiest game to play. There are seven players on each team given that seven's a lucky number. Three cats are called Chasers and ours are Shadefeather Johnson, Bluesplash Bell, and Snowfall Spinnet."

"Three Chasers named Shadefeather Johnson, Bluesplash Bell, and Snowfall Spinnet. Got it," Nightpaw replied while Treebranch took out a bright blue ball about the size of a medium-sized tortoise shell.

"This ball's called the Qualify," Treebranch meowed on. "The Chasers will throw the Qualify to each other and try to get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. There are ten points every time the Qualify goes through one of the hoops. You got it?"

Nightpaw nodded and recited, "The Chasers throw the Qualify and put it through the hoops to score." Then he added, "It's like soccer, right?"

The huge Norwegian Forest Cat tilted his head to one side and asked him in bewilderment, "Soccer? What's soccer?"

"Uh...nothing."

Treebranch gave him a confused look on his broad face and Nightpaw almost thought that he would ask him a lot of questions concerning the kittypet world. But he was very grateful when the fifth-year warrior went on with the AirBall rules.

"Anyways, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper. You can already see that I'm the Keeper for the LionClan AirBall team. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

"So there are three Chasers and one Keeper," Nightpaw memorized, determined to remember all of the players. "And they play with the Qualify. Okay, I got that. So what are those balls?" he mewed, pointing his tail at the three balls left inside the box.

"I'll show you now," Treebranch mewed. "Here. Take this." He gave Nightpaw a small club, a bit like a short stick that Twoleg kits hit a ball with like he saw on T.V., which he took into his jaws. "I'll show you what the Budgers do," Treebranch meowed to him. "These two are the Budgers. Nasty little things."

He showed Nightpaw two identical round balls, jet black, wooden, and slightly smaller than the red Qualify. Nightpaw suddenly noticed that they seemed to be straining to get away from the straps holding them inside the box.

Then Treebranch told Nightpaw, "Now stand back. I'm fixing to let it go." He crouched down to the ground and freed one of the Budgers.

At once, the medium-sized black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Nightpaw's face. With the bat in his jaws, Nightpaw swung at it to stop it from cracking his muzzle open and sent it zigzagging away into the air. It zoomed all around their heads and then flew straight at Treebranch, who jumped on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.

Treebranch forced the struggling Budger back into the crate and strapping it down just safe and sound, panting, "See? The Budgers soar around, trying to knock wings off of the cats. That's why you have two Thrashers on each team. The Weasley twins, Berrytail and Cherrynose, are our Thrashers. It's their job to protect their team from the Budgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So...think you've got all that?"

"Three Chasers try and score with the Qualify; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Thrashers keep the Budgers away from their team," Nightpaw reeled off, feeling that he would get a perfect grade at this.

"Very good," the light brown tabby tom purred.

"Have the Budgers ever killed a cat before?" Nightpaw asked Treebranch, hoping to StarClan that he sounded careful.

Treebranch shook his head and meowed reassuringly, "No. That never happens at the Forest since these Budgers are wooden. We've had a couple of broken jaws and broken legs but there's been nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker and our Seeker is you. And you don't have to worry about the Qualify or the Budgers..."

"...unless they crack my skull open," Nightpaw put in, trying to add some humor to the situation.

"Hey, don't worry about that!" Treebranch purred. "The Weasley twins are more than a match for the Budgers; in fact, they're even like a pair of feline Budgers themselves."

Purring at his joke, the Norwegian Forest Cat reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball with his jaws. Compared with the Qualify and the Budgers, it was tiny and it was about the size of a large pecan nut. It was bright golden and had little fluttering silver wings.

Seeing the wonder on the Maine Coon/British Shorthair's face, Treebranch explained to him, "Now THIS is the Golden Pinch, and it's the most vital ball of its gang. It's awfully hard to catch because it's very fast and very difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to soar in and out of the obstacles of the game to catch it before the other team's Seeker. It's because whichever Seeker catches the Pinch wins his Clan an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why Seekers get fouled a lot. But you catch this whenever we're in the lead...we win."

He paused for a short breath before going on. "A game of AirBall can only end when the Pinch is caught, so it could go on for ages. I think the record is three moons; they had to keep bringing on substitutes so that the players could get some sleep. So, you got any more questions?"

Nightpaw eagerly shook his head. He perfectly understood what he had to do, but it was doing it that was going to be the hard part.

Treebranch dipped his head to him and meowed, "Good. But we're not going to practice with the Snitch yet." He placed the Pinch carefully back into the box and closed it quickly. "It's because it'll be too dark to see it and we could lose it. Now, let's let you practice with these."

He pulled a bag of ordinary tennis balls out of a bag and, a few minutes later, he and Nightpaw were flying in the air, with Treebranch pitching the tennis balls as hard as he could in every way for the black cat to catch in his jaws. Nightpaw didn't miss a single ball, and Treebranch was very impressed. Around half an hour later, nightfall had already arrived and the two cats couldn't carry on.

"That AirBall Trophy is gonna be ours this year," Treebranch purred contentedly as they padded back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out to play even better than Clawfoot Weasley himself! He could've played for America if he didn't go chasing Sky Bison and those other weird animals."

**...**

Maybe it was due to being busy, with AirBall practice three evenings a quarter-moon on top of all his homework, but Nightpaw couldn't believe that he had already been living at the Forest for two moons. The island castle felt more like home to him than the Dursleys' house ever was. He missed Daniel, but he seemed proud that his young cat was a warrior. His lessons were also being more and more interesting now that they mastered the basic spells.

On Halloween morning, the cats woke up to the delicious smell of baking pumpkins and apples drifting through the passageways. What was even better was that Shortlegs announced in Charms that they were ready to make objects fly, something that they wanted so hard to try since they'd seen him make Kermit the Frog rocket around the classroom.

Shortlegs put the class into pairs of two cats to practice. Nightpaw's class partner was Sandpaw Finnigan, which was an excellent thing because Toadpaw was trying to catch his eye. Redpaw, however, was to be working with Fawnpaw. It was hard to tell which cat was angrier about this; she didn't speak to them since the day Nightpaw's set of wings arrived.

"Now, don't forget that nice tail twitch we've been practicing!" squeaked Shortlegs, perched on top of his mountain of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick."

"Swish and flick," the class repeated, although some messed up a little.

Shortlegs purred, "Good! Now, saying the magic words properly is very important, too. Do not ever forget Buffalohead, who said 's' instead of 'f' and he found himself on the floor with a Sky Bison on his chest."

The cats purred at that, but once the lesson began, they frowned because it was very difficult. Nightpaw and Sandpaw swished and flicked their tails, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop. Sandpaw got so annoyed that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it.

"I think we need a new feather, sir," Nightpaw informed Shortlegs as he put the feather out with his front paw.

Redpaw, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck. _"Wingardium Leviosa!"_ he yowled loudly, waving his shorter tail like a rattlesnake's rattle.

Fawnpaw rolled her amber eyes and hissed at him, "Wait! Stop for a minute! You're gonna give yourself a rash like that. Plus, you're saying it wrong, dum-dum! It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-_o_-sa, not Levi-_or_-sa! Just make the 'gar' nice and long."

"Fine," Nightpaw heard Redpaw snarl angrily. "If you're so clever, then you do it!"

Fawnpaw rolled her eyes, ruffled her fur, flicked her tail-wand, and meowed, _"Wingardium_ _Leviosa!"_ At that, their feather rose off the school desk and it hovered about four fox-lengths above their heads.

"Oh, well done indeed!" Shortlegs cried happily, flicking his ears happily. "Everyone look over here! Miss Granger's done it!"

**...**

Redpaw was in a very bad mood by the end of the class.

While they prowled outside in the crowded courtyard, the ginger American Shorthair began complaining angrily to Nightpaw, "'It's Levi-O-sa, not Levi-OR-sa!' That she-cat's a curse to this Forest! It's no wonder that no other cat here can stand her!"

Suddenly, something pushed quickly into Nightpaw as it rushed past him. It was Fawnpaw Granger. Nightpaw felt pretty startled when she looked back at him and there were tears in her amber eyes. He now felt bad for her; he could tell she was just trying to have a friend, but it seemed to be quite impossible.

"Hey, Redpaw. I think she heard you."

"So? Maybe she saw that she doesn't have any friends here?" Despite his harsh words, the ginger American Shorthair looked a bit disturbed and a bit ashamed at what he just meowed. Nightpaw just gave him an odd look before padding ahead to the next class.

After that, Fawnpaw didn't turn up for the next class and she wasn't seen all through the afternoon.

**...**

While they were on their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Nightpaw and Redpaw could hear Daisypaw Patil telling her friend Brownpaw something.

"So what's happening?" Nightpaw asked them.

Daisypaw turned to them and meowed sadly, "It's Fawnpaw. She hasn't been at the feast tonight. Plus, we've heard that she's crying in the she-cats' restroom and she won't come out." Then she added sympathetically, "Poor thing."

Redpaw looked still guiltier at this, and Nightpaw felt the same way. But a moment later, they entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Fawnpaw out of their brains.

A thousand real-live bats flew down from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more bats fluttered over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stumble. The feast appeared abruptly on the golden plates just like it did at the start-of-term banquet.

Nightpaw was just helping himself to a baked tuber when Quailflight came sprinting into the hall, his turban crooked and fright etched on his face. Everyone stared as the European Shorthair reached Silverstar's spot, slumped against the table, and panted, "Mammoth! In the dungeons! ...thought you ought to know."

Then he sunk down to the ground in a dead faint.

There was a great uproar of fear and horror, but Nightpaw remained calm, even though his fur bristled with fright. Weren't woolly mammoths supposed to be extinct?

"SILENCE!" Silverstar roared while summoning several purple from his tail as they exploded in the air. That was enough to stop all the cats from howling piercingly and Quailflight was being carried away by a tortoiseshell she-cat. "Do not panic! Prefects!" Silverstar commanded. "Lead your Clans back to their camps immediately!"

As soon as the command was given out, Sandthorn already dove into his element. "Follow me and stick together, first years! There's no need to fear the mammoth if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me now! Make way, first years, coming through! Excuse me there! I'm a prefect!"

As the cats followed the curly-haired ginger tom up the stairs, Nightpaw looked over at Redpaw trotting by his side and mewed, "How'd a mammoth get in the castle?"

Redpaw shrugged quizzically and replied, "I don't know; don't ask me. Mammoths may not be stupid, but they're not smart either. Maybe the Joker let it in the castle for a Halloween joke?"

They passed by different groups of cats rushing around in several different directions. As the LionClan cats pushed their way through a crowd of confused BadgerClan cats, Nightpaw, remembering something, suddenly grabbed Redpaw's tail with his jaws.

"I've just thought of someone: Fawnpaw!" Nightpaw felt dread for the Angora cat as he went on, "She doesn't know anything about that mammoth! We have to warn her!"

He began dragging him away while Redpaw looked down at the stone floor and looked over at the vines covering the windows. Finally, he muttered, "All right. Fine. But Sandthorn better not see us!"

Ducking down, the two cats joined up with the BadgerClan cats padding the other way, slipped down an abandoned side passageway, and hurried off toward the she-cats' restroom. They had just turned around the corner when they heard quick pawsteps right behind them.

"It's Sandthorn! Hide behind here!" Redpaw hissed, grabbing Nightpaw by the scruff and dragging him behind a large stone Asian Lung Dragon.

But when they looked around, however, they saw that it was not Sandthorn but Brokenfang. The dark brown tabby tom crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

"What in the name of StarClan is he doing?" Nightpaw whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the mentors?"

"Search me." As quietly as possible, the two apprentices crept along the next corridor after Brokenfang's fading pawsteps.

Nightpaw meowed "He's gone for now," and started to pad away, but Redpaw pulled him back behind the statue by the tail.

The American Shorthair sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Do you...smell something? And I mean something bad."

Nightpaw gave him a look before opening his jaws and drinking in the scent. But he closed his jaws immediately when a foul stench hit his scent glands. It smelt like dog breath and a skunk's gas combined. He had never encountered a skunk before, but he had heard that they smell really bad...especially when threatened.

And then they heard it: a low prehistoric growling and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Redpaw bristled and pointed his tail ahead. At the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving right toward them. They shrank into the shadows (with Nightpaw blending into the dark perfectly) and watched as it emerged into a piece of moonlight.

It was an impressive yet so horrible sight. Thirteen feet tall, its hair was dusky chocolate brown, its great hefty body like a boulder with its small angry eyes perched on each side of its head like black pebbles on a cliff. It had massive legs thick as tree trunks with huge thunderous feet. The stench that was coming from it was incredible. Its trunk was swaying from side to side while its sharp curved tusks turned white in the moonlight.

The woolly mammoth stopped next to a doorway and looked around inside. It started to wave its hanging vine-like tail, having made up its mind, and then stomped slowly into the room.

"The key's already in the lock," Nightpaw muttered. "How about we lock it in?"

"Good idea," Redpaw replied nervously.

They padded toward the open door, mouths dry with anticipation, praying that the mammoth wasn't going to come out of it. With one great leap, Nightpaw managed to grab the key in his jaws, kick the door shut, and lock it.

"Yeah!"

Flushed with their triumph, the two tomcats started to sprint back up the hallway, but just as they reached the corner, they suddenly heard something that made their hearts freeze: a high alarmed feline screech and it was coming from the door that they had just chained up.

"Oh, no," Redpaw moaned, looking as shocking-looking as the Gory Gaunt.

"It's the she-cats' restroom!" Nightpaw gasped.

_"Fawnpaw!"_ they howled together.

It was the last thing that they ever wanted to do, but they didn't have any choice, now did they? Wheeling around, they leaped right back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in their panic. Nightpaw finally pulled the door open and the two toms ran inside to see a great mess.

Fawnpaw was shrinking against the opposite wall of the restroom, looking as if she was about to faint. The woolly mammoth was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls with its tusks as it went. When she saw the two toms enter, she yowled, "Nightpaw! Redpaw! Help me!"

"Redpaw! Confuse it!" Nightpaw ordered desperately.

Immediately, he found a sink knob, gripped it in his jaws, and threw it against the wall as hard as he could. The mammoth stopped a few cat-lengths from Fawnpaw and trudged around, blinking madly, to see what the heck made that noise. Its angry beady eyes saw Nightpaw; the mammoth hesitated, then it went after him instead, raising its trunk and trumpeting loudly as it went.

"Hey, mouse-brain! Over here!" Redpaw called from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a large pipe right at it. The mammoth didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it did hear the howl and waited again, pointing its sharp white tusks at Redpaw instead, giving Nightpaw time to run around it.

"Come on! Run! Run!" the black tom yelled at Fawnpaw, grabbing her scruff and trying to pull her away. But the she-cat couldn't move, for she was still flat against the wall, her jaws much obviously wide open with fright.

The screeching and their own echoes seemed to be driving the mammoth totally out of control. It roared furiously again and stomped toward Redpaw, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

"I can use some help here!" he yowled.

Hearing that, Nightpaw did something that was both very courageous and very mouse-brained: He took a great running jump and managed to sink his claws into the mammoth's head from behind. The great beast couldn't feel him hanging there, but even it might notice if you stick something up its nostrils, and Nightpaw had unsheathed his claws when he jumped. And those claws went straight up one of its nostrils.

"Ewww!" Redpaw and Fawnpaw exclaimed with disgust.

Howling with pain, the mammoth twisted and flailed its tusks dangerously, with Nightpaw clinging on for dear life; any second, the great animal was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the tusks.

As Nightpaw swerved aside to avoid the flailing tusks, he yowled to Redpaw, "Do something!"

"Well, what can I do?"

"Anything!"

Fawnpaw had already sunk to the floor in terror; Redpaw started lashing his tail-wand; not knowing what he was going to do, he turned to Fawnpaw, who rolled her eyes and reminded him, "Swish and flick."

Suddenly, Redpaw heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: _"Wingardium Leviosa!"_

One of the mammoth's tusks flew suddenly out of the beast's jaws, rose high up into the air, and turned slowly over. The mammoth had a look of shock and confusion on its face, so it looked up...and the tusk dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head while it was looking up at it. The beast swayed on the spot and fell flat on the ground, with a thud that made the whole room shake.

Nightpaw, who had fallen just like the mammoth had, rose to his three paws. He was shaking and out of breath and still had one of his paws in the mammoth's trunk. Redpaw was standing there with his tail-wand still raised, staring at what he had just done.

Fawnpaw, who had slunk out from underneath the sink, rasped, "Is it...dead?"

"No," Nightpaw told her. "I think Redpaw knocked it out." He pulled with all of his might and wrenched his paw free from the beast's nostril. It was covered in something that looked like frogspawn. "Eww." He wiped it on its dark brown fur and began washing his paw with the sink water.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three young apprentices look up quickly. They didn't realize what a commotion they were making, but of course, a cat downstairs must have heard the crashes and the mammoth's roaring. A moment later, Thistleheart had come sprinting into the room, closely followed by Brokenfang, with Quailflight bringing up the rear. Nightpaw saw something red on the dark tabby's leg, but he shifted it out of sight.

Brokenfang bent over the mammoth while Thistleheart glared at Nightpaw and Redpaw with cold green eyes. Nightpaw had never seen her look so angry before. Her lips were peeled back into a snarl and her fur was bristling. Hopes of winning fifty points for LionClan faded speedily from the black tomcat's mind.

"What in the name of StarClan were you two thinking?" the deputy growled with cold fury. Brokenfang stared sharply at Nightpaw, who stared at Redpaw and wished that he let his tail down. "You're lucky that you weren't killed! Why weren't you with the rest of your Clan? Explain yourselves, both of you!"

"Thistleheart, please don't blame them!" a small voice squeaked from the shadows. Fawnpaw had placed herself between the Forest deputy and the apprentices. "It's not their fault! They were just looking for me!"

Immediately, the pale brown tabby she-cat shook herself as if she couldn't believe her eyes. Redpaw lowered his tail; the apprentices couldn't believe that Fawnpaw, a bossy know-it-all, was defending them like this. Then Thistleheart rasped, "Miss...Miss Granger!"

Fawnpaw stared her deputy in the eyes and lowered herself to her belly as she continued, "I've read all about woolly mammoths, you know, and I...I thought I could deal with it all on my own. So that's why I went looking for it. But I was wrong. It was going to finish me off when they came and they didn't have time to call for help. If it weren't for them finding me, I'd be fresh-kill right now."

Nightpaw now saw that Fawnpaw was trying to help them avoid trouble. He and Redpaw tried to look as if the story was true by lowering themselves to the ground until their belly fur brushed the cold floor.

"Oh my..." Thistleheart gasped with pure shock. Then she shook herself again and growled at the Angora mix, "Miss Granger, how on earth could you be so thoughtless in thinking to fighting a prehistoric monster all on your own? I thought you had much more sense than that. I am very disappointed in you."

Fawnpaw lowered her head in shame and Nightpaw was too speechless to defend her. The light brown tabby she-cat was the last cat to think of breaking the rules, and here she was, lying to get him and Redpaw out of trouble. That almost sounded as if Brokenfang would give out cat treats, which he really wouldn't be doing.

Thistleheart went on, "Miss Granger, five points will be taken from LionClan for your serious lack of thinking tonight. If you're not hurt at all, you should go back up to the LionClan tower. The cats are finishing the feast in their dorms."

Fawnpaw dipped her head, rose to her paws, and slunk away, giving a nod to Nightpaw and Redpaw over her shoulder. Quailflight, meanwhile, took one look at the mammoth, which grunted wearily, and leaped away with a yowl of fright and sunk his claws into the ground.

"As for you two," the deputy meowed to Nightpaw and Redpaw, "I still say you were lucky, but not many first-year apprentices could take on a full-grown woolly mammoth and live to tell the tale. Five points...will be awarded to the both of you...for sheer dumb luck. Silverstar will be informed about this adventure tonight. You may go."

The two tomcats nodded to Thistleheart, and then they padded past Quailflight, who was still shivering and muttering nervously at seeing the knocked-out mammoth. Then they hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they climbed two floors up. It was very much a relief to be away from the smell of the woolly mammoth, quite apart from anything else.

"We should've got more than ten points," Redpaw grumbled, looking annoyed.

"But since she took five points from Fawnpaw, that'd make it five," Nightpaw reasoned with him.

Redpaw shuffled his paws as he admitted, "Yeah, but it was still nice of her to get us out of crap like that. We did save her life, after all."

Nightpaw meowed, "Well, if we didn't lock her in with the mammoth, she wouldn't need some saving." Then, thinking some more, he added, "And she wouldn't need saving if you didn't make fun of her."

"Eh, what're friends for?" the ginger tom responded.

They had finally reached the portrait of the Fat Queen. "Owl Gizzard," they meowed to her and they entered.

The common room was packed and very noisy with excitement. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up and they were socializing like a normal warrior would. Fawnpaw, however, was standing alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause and the three cats couldn't find a word to say to one another.

Then, she finally meowed to Nightpaw and Redpaw, "Guys...thank you so much for saving me tonight. I'm sorry I've bossed you around these past few moons. I just wanted to make friends, that's all."

"No problem," Redpaw purred warmly, a tone that Nightpaw had never heard his friend speak to Fawnpaw before. "And thanks for getting us out of trouble."

"The pleasure's all mine." Fawnpaw purred.

Nightpaw then decided that they should make it up to her by doing something very fun together sometime. Just the three of them. So he cleared his throat quickly and mewed to the Angora mix, "Listen, Fawnpaw. Um...would you like to hang out with us sometime?"

Fawnpaw let out a _MMrrooww_ of joy as she purred, "Sure!"

And when they were finished, the three cats set off together to fix their plates and they ate and socialized together like a warrior would normally do.

**...**

The next morning, before classes began, Nightpaw and Redpaw climbed up to the top of the LionClan Tower to watch the sun rise just as they always did every morning. Fawnpaw joined up with them and they allowed her to have some room so that she could marvel at the scenery of the island.

From that moment on, Fawnpaw Granger became their newest friend and a member of their pack. There are some things that you can't share without ending up liking each other and being a loyal friend until the end. And knocking out a thirteen-foot-tall woolly mammoth is one of those things.

And from that moment on, Nightpaw Potter, Redpaw Weasley, and Fawnpaw Granger had become...the Golden Trio.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: Wow. Finally, Fawnpaw has become part of the Golden Trio! Awesomeness!**

**Katara: Since you put the mammoth to a time when people still live, you're gonna make it a bit like Avatar Cat, right?**

**AvatarCat11: Yeah! Would you like to say the review thing?**

**Katara: Sure! (To the readers) Anyone who reviews will receive either a Nightpaw plush doll, a Redpaw plush doll, or a Fawnpaw plush doll; they can choose to either have one or two or all three! Plus, flames will be put out with my WaterBending! (Blinks in surprise) Wow, that's been quite a while since I said that.**

**AvatarCat11 and Katara: See ya next time!**


	11. AirBall

**AvatarCat11: I am now officially finished with Avatar Cat Book 1 and I'm starting up on Book 2. And I'm working on other stories like Avatar Mystery Dungeon and Avatar: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.**

**Katara: I'm glad that you're working on some new stories!**

**AvatarCat11: I am too. Anyways, since snowwhistle is starting to like this series, let's let him say the disclaimer for now.**

**snowwhistle: Already here! And I am so happy to have read the first Avatar Cat season!**

**Disclaimer: Just like on Avatar Cat, AvatarCat11 will never own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats!**

**Updating date: February 7, 2011**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and snowwhistle: Enjoy!**

**...**

_AirBall_

As the Forest entered November, the weather turned very cold and very harsh. The island's mountains around the school became icy gray and the sea and lake became like chilled steel. Every morning, the ground was covered in frost. Badgerstripe was often seen from the upstairs windows defrosting feathers on the wings on the AirBall field, bundled up in a large heavy bear fur coat.

The AirBall season has begun.

On Saturday afternoon, Nightpaw would play in his first match after weeks of training: LionClan vs. ViperClan. If LionClan won, they would move up to second place in the Clan competition. Not many cats have seen Nightpaw play because Treebranch decided that, since he was their secret weapon, Nightpaw should be kept, well, secret. But the news that he was playing Seeker somehow leaked out, and he didn't know which was worse...cats telling him he would do well or cats telling him they would be running around underneath him holding moss.

Nightpaw was now very happy that Fawnpaw became another best friend of his. He didn't know how he would get through all of his homework without her, what with all the last bit of AirBall practice Treebranch was making them do. The feisty light brown tabby she-cat also lent him _AirBall Throughout the Ages_, which turned out to be a very interesting book to read.

Nightpaw learned that there were seven hundred ways of causing an AirBall foul and all of them happened during a World Trophy competition in 1493; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest cats, and that most serious AirBall accidents seemed to happen to them; that although cats rarely died playing AirBall, referees vanished and turned up moons later in the deserts of Mexico.

Fawnpaw became a bit more relaxed about breaking rules ever since Nightpaw and Redpaw saved her from the woolly mammoth, and she was much nicer for it. An example of this was this...

**...**

The day before Nightpaw's first AirBall match, the three apprentices were out in the cold square during break, and she made a bright blue fire that could be carried around in a jar. They were standing with their backs to it, getting their pelts warm, when Brokenfang was walking in a weird way across the yard.

Nightpaw noticed right away that Brokenfang was limping. The three cats moved much closer together to block the fire from view; they were sure it wasn't allowed. Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught the dark tabby's dark amber eye. He limped over; he hadn't seen the fire, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them off anyway.

"What's that you've got there, Potter?"

It was _AirBall Throughout the Ages_ and Nightpaw showed it him.

"Library books should not be taken outside the school library," Brokenfang growled. "Give it to me. Five points from LionClan."

Nightpaw had to give the book to him, but while the Potions mentor limped away, Nightpaw muttered angrily, "He just made that rule up." But after watching him limp, he had to meow, "I wonder what's wrong with his leg?"

"Heck if I know. But I hope it's hurting him," Redpaw replied resentfully.

**...**

The LionClan common room was very noisy that evening and Nightpaw, Redpaw, and Fawnpaw were sitting together next to a window. Fawnpaw was just checking up on the two toms' Charms homework for them. She didn't let them copy, but by asking her to read it through, they got the right answers anyway.

Nightpaw felt as restless as an excited horse. He wanted _AirBall Throughout the Ages_ back very badly so that he could take his mind off his nerves about tomorrow's match. Why should he be afraid of Brokenfang? He was just a cat just like he was...except Brokenfang was a mean cat. Getting up, he decided that he was going to ask Brokenfang if he could have it back.

"It's better you than me," they mewed together when he told them. But Nightpaw had an idea that the dark brown tabby cat wouldn't refuse if there were other warriors listening.

He padded his way down to the staffroom and knocked with his front paw. There was no answer, so he went ahead and knocked again. Nothing. Perhaps Brokenfang left the book in there? It was worth a try, he decided for himself. So he pushed the door ajar and peered inside...and a totally frightening scene met his eyes.

Brokenfang and Oscar were inside, alone. One of his front legs was bloody and mangled and Oscar was timidly handing him a couple of cobweb bandages.

"Damn that silver brute!" Brokenfang was cursing. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three of those heads at once?"

As stealthily as he could, Nightpaw tried to shut the door very quietly, but suddenly...

"POTTER!" Brokenfang had noticed him come in, his face twisted with fury as he dropped his weight to the ground quickly to hide his injured leg. Nightpaw gulped, not wanting to see that image ever again.

"I just wanted..."

"GET OUT! _GET OUT!_"

Right before Brokenfang could take any more points from LionClan, Nightpaw turned tail and left him, sprinting back upstairs to the LionClan common room.

"So did you get it?" Redpaw asked Nightpaw as he joined him and Fawnpaw. But something on the black cat's face made him mew, "What's the matter, buddy?"

In a low whisper, Nightpaw told them all that he saw. "You know what this means?" he finished with a pause for breath. "He tried to get past that large three-headed dragon at Halloween and it bit him! That's where he was going when we saw him: he's after whatever it's guarding! And I'd bet my wings that he let that mammoth in just to make a distraction!"

Fawnpaw's amber eyes were wide with shock as she murmured, "No...no way! He's not a very nice guy, but he wouldn't steal anything that Silverstar's keeping safe!"

"Seriously, Fawnpaw?" Redpaw snorted with disbelief. "Do you really think that all mentors are saints or something? I'm sticking with Nightpaw for this and I wouldn't look at just Brokenfang on the outside! So what's he up to? What's that dragon guarding?"

Nightpaw didn't answer, so he went to bed with his head ringing with that same little problem. Toadpaw was snoring noisily, but Nightpaw couldn't sleep. He tried to empty his mind, for he needed to sleep since he had his first AirBall match in a few hours. But the expression on his Potions mentor's face when Nightpaw saw his injured leg was hard to forget.

**...**

The next morning dawned and it was very bright but very cold. The Great Hall was full of the delicious smell of smoked sausages and the cheerful chatter of cats looking forward to a good AirBall match. But one cat wasn't eating at all thanks to being so darn nervous: Nightpaw.

"Please eat something."

"No."

"Just some toast," Fawnpaw coaxed him.

"No, I'm not hungry." Nightpaw felt very terrible and sick to his belly. In an hour's time, he would be walking onto the field.

Sandpaw got up from his spot and padded over to Nightpaw, meowing, "You're gonna need your strength, mate. Seekers are always the cats who get beaten by the other team."

Nightpaw mewed with a hint of sarcasm, "Gee, thanks," as he watched the sand-colored tom chow down on a sausage. He felt only a tiny bit better from the pep talk, but he still felt a little nervous about what was up ahead.

But something stopped him just as he grabbed a sausage or two to eat. Brokenfang had just padded awkwardly past him with a frown on his face, but when he prowled past Nightpaw, he looked over his shoulder at him. There was quite a sneer on his face as he spoke to him.

"Good luck today, Potter. Then again, now you've proved yourself against a mammoth, a little game of AirBall should be easy for you. Even if it is against ViperClan."

As soon as he finished, he left.

**...**

By eleven o'clock, the entire school seemed to already be out in the stands around the AirBall playing field. Many cats had binoculars and the seats might be raised high in the air, but Nightpaw saw that it was still hard to see what was going on sometimes.

Redpaw and Fawnpaw joined Toadpaw, Sandpaw, and Cinderpaw in the top row. As a surprise for Nightpaw, they painted a large banner on one of the sheets that Scrapper damaged. It said _'Nightpaw for President'_, and Cinderpaw drew a large LionClan lion underneath since he was a good artist. Then Fawnpaw performed a little charm so that the paint flashed different colors.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Nightpaw and the other cats of the team were changing into their scarlet AirBall cloaks (ViperClan would be playing in green). While he was waiting patiently, Treebranch padded up to him and sat down beside him.

"You nervous, Potter?"

"Yeah," Nightpaw muttered, looking around at the stadium again.

The large light brown tabby tom nudged him soothingly with his shoulder and meowed, "Don't worry. Everyone gets nervous now and then again. And yes, even I was a little nervous on my first game."

Nightpaw stared at him in surprise. "What happened?"

"I...can't really remember," Treebranch replied. "I took a Budger to the head just two minutes in. Woke up in a medicine nest a quarter-moon later." Turning to the other cats and waiting for the black cat to join the others, he cleared his throat for silence. "Okay, toms," he meowed.

"And she-cats!" Chaser Shadefeather Johnson called out.

"And she-cats," Treebranch agreed with her. "This is it, everyone."

"It's the big one!" Berrytail called out.

"It's the one we've been waiting for!" Cherrynose piped up.

Berrytail turned to give Nightpaw a quick wink and whispered to him, "We know Treebranch's speech by heart. You can tell that we were on his team last year."

However, Treebranch caught the twins whispering to him and growled, "Shut it, the pair of you. Now this team here is the best AirBall team that LionClan has had in years. We're going to win. I know we can." Then he glared at them all as if to say, _Or else_.

"All right, then. It's finally time. Good luck, every single one of you."

With a nod, Nightpaw followed Berrytail and Cherrynose out of the locker room and, hoping that his front paws weren't going to give way, padded onto the field to loud cheers. The ViperClan cats were booing at the LionClan AirBall team, but he tried his best to pay no attention to them and pay attention to the cheering.

Clearwing Hooch was refereeing; the pale gray she-cat was sitting right in the middle of the field and waiting for the two teams, her set of wings already on her back.

"Now, I want a nice fair game, every single one of you," she meowed to them once they were all gathered around her. Nightpaw suddenly noticed that she seemed to be speaking mainly to the ViperClan Captain, Flintclaw Flint, a large brown-&-gray tabby sixth year. The young black-furred apprentice thought that Flintclaw looked as if he had some warthog blood in him.

Out of the corner of his eye, the Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix saw the wavering flag very high above, flashing _Potter for President_ over the crowd. His heart skipped and he suddenly felt a lot braver. When the command to snap their wings on was given out, he immediately snapped the Icarus Three Thousand's strap onto his back.

The Clearwing gave a loud blast on her silver whistle, fifteen cats with wings rose up high into the air, the balls were released, and...they were off.

"And the Qualify is taken immediately by Shadefeather Johnson of LionClan! What an excellent Chaser that queen is, and she is rather attractive, too."

"Jordan!"

"Sorry, Thistleheart." The Weasley twins' best friend, Quicktongue Jordan, was already doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Thistleheart.

"And she's really doing great up there, a neat pass to Snowfall Spinnet, a really good find of Treebranch Wood's, last year only a reserve! Back to Johnson and...no, the ViperClan cats have taken the Qualify! ViperClan Captain Flintclaw gains the Qualify and off he goes! Flintclaw's flying like an eagle up there! He's going to...no, he's stopped by a brilliant move from LionClan Keeper Wood and the LionClan cats take the Qualify! That's Chaser Bluesplash Bell of LionClan there! Nice dive around Flintclaw, off up the field and... OUCH! That's _gotta_ hurt, hit in the head by a Budger! Qualify's been taken by ViperClan! Over there is Adderjaw Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Budger! Sent his way by either Berrytail or Cherrynose Weasley! Even I can't tell which; nice play by the LionClan Beater, anyway, and Johnson's back in possession of the Qualify! A clear field ahead and off she goes! She's really flying, she dodges a fast Budger, and the goal posts are ahead! Come on, Shadefeather...Keeper Rockfur Bletchley dives, misses...LIONCLAN SCORES!"

LionClan cat cheers filled up the freezing air, with howls of rage and moans coming from the ViperClan cats.

**...**

"Move up there! Move along!"

"Badgerstripe!" Redpaw and Fawnpaw squeezed together to give the big black cat enough space to join them. After the mammoth episode, Nightpaw and Redpaw had introduced Fawnpaw to him, and she liked hanging out with them and with Badgerstripe.

"I've been watchin' the game from me cabin," the gamekeeper meowed, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck with his paw. "But it ain't the same as bein' part of the pack. No sign of the Pinch yet, huh?"

"Nope," Redpaw meowed, shaking his head. "Nightpaw hasn't had much to do yet."

Badgerstripe looked up to where Nightpaw was flying and muttered, "Kept outta trouble, though. Well, that's somethin' good." Then he ended up raising his binoculars and peering upward at the dot that was Nightpaw.

**...**

Way up above them, Nightpaw was gliding over the game, squinting about for some sign of the Snitch. This was part of his and Treebranch's game plan; so far, it seemed to be a really good plan.

"Keep out of the way until you catch sight of the Pinch," the light brown tabby tom had meowed to him. "We don't want you to be attacked before you have to be."

When Shadefeather had scored, Nightpaw had done a couple of loops to let off his feelings. Now he was back to staring around for the small golden ball. Once he thought he saw a flash of gold, but it was just a reflection from one of the Weasleys' gold necklaces, and once a Budger came pelting his way, more like a comet than anything, but he dodged it and Berrytail chased after it.

"Nightpaw, you okay?" he managed to yowl as he beat the Budger furiously toward Flintclaw.

"ViperClan's in possession," Quicktongue was saying. "Chaser Adderjaw Pucey just dodges two Budgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell, and speeds toward the...hold the phone! Was that the Pinch?"

A low sound ran through the crowd as Adderjaw dropped the Qualify, too busy looking over his shoulder at the blaze of gold that passed his left ear.

In a great rush of excitement, Nightpaw finally found it and he dived downward after the streak of gold. The ViperClan Seeker Thorntooth Higgs had seen it, too. Neck and neck, the two toms hurtled toward the Snitch and started ramming each other out of the way. All the Chasers from both teams seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing as they hung in midair to watch. Nightpaw realized that he was much faster than Thorntooth; he could see the small round ball, its wings fluttering and darting up ahead. He put on an extra burst of speed...

WHAM! A roar of anger echoed from the LionClan cats below, for Flintclaw had stealthily and swiftly blocked Nightpaw's on purpose, and the black cat was blown off course, trying to stay in the air quickly.

"FOUL!" the LionClan cats roared angrily as Clearwing spoke furiously to Flintclaw and then ordered a free attempt at the goal posts for LionClan. But in all the chaos, of course, the Golden Pinch had vanished from sight once again.

**...**

Down in the stands, Cinderpaw was screeching, "Send him off, ref! Red card! Red card!"

"Red card? What are you meowing about, Cinderpaw?" Redpaw asked him.

"It's the red card!" Cinderpaw spat energetically. "In football, you get shown the red card and you get your tail kicked out of the game!"

Redpaw shook his head and reminded him, "But this isn't football!"

Badgerstripe, however, was on Cinderpaw's side. "But they should've changed the rules. Flintclaw coulda went and knocked Nightpaw outta the air."

**...**

Meanwhile, Quicktongue was finding it difficult not to take sides. "So...after that noticeable and revolting bit of dishonest..."

"Jordan!" growled Thistleheart.

"I mean, come on! After that open and disgusting unclean..."

_"I'm warning you, Jordan!"_

"Okay, okay! Flintclaw nearly murders the LionClan Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure. So a penalty to LionClan, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble at all! And we continue the play, LionClan still in possession."

It was when Nightpaw dodged another Budger, which went spinning perilously past his head, it happened. His golden wings gave a sudden fear-provoking tilt to the side. For a quick second, he thought that the wings would slip off of his back. He slipped them back on quickly with both his front paws. He had never felt anything like that.

It happened again so suddenly and so quickly. It was as though the set of wings was trying to throw him away. But Icarus Three Thousands didn't suddenly decide to throw their riders away. Nightpaw tried to turn back toward the LionClan goal-posts, for he had half a mind to ask Treebranch to call time-out...but he saw that his wings were completely out of control. Now he couldn't turn them around and he couldn't direct it at all. It was flapping crazily in the air, and every now and then making brutal hissing movements that almost unseated him.

Quicktongue was still commentating, "ViperClan in possession now! Flintclaw's now with the Qualify and passes Spinnet and Bell! Now he's hit so hard in the face by a Budger that I hope it broke his nose! I'm only _joking_, Thistleheart! ViperClan scores...oh no..."

The ViperClan cats were cheering hard, but no one seemed to have noticed that Nightpaw's set of wings were behaving outlandishly. The golden wings were carrying him gradually higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as they went.

"What the hell does Nightpaw think he's doing?" Badgerstripe mumbled with worry as he looked through his binoculars. "If I didn' know any better, I'd say he lost control of those wings. But he can't have! He can't have!"

The young black cat was now dangling from it, holding on with only one clawed paw.

"Did somethin' happen to those wings when Flintclaw blocked him?" Sandpaw whispered in a small voice.

"Can't have," Badgerstripe muttered, his voice shaking. "Anythin' can't get in the way with wings except for very influential Dark magic. No apprentice could've done that to a set of wings."

At these words, Fawnpaw seized the big black cat's binoculars, but she wasn't looking up at her friend; instead of looking up at Nightpaw, she started looking frenetically at the crowd.

"Fawnpaw, what're you doing?" Redpaw moaned, looking quite gray-faced.

"I knew it," the light brown tabby she-cat. "Redpaw, look."

Redpaw grabbed the binoculars and looked in them; Brokenfang was in the middle of the stands opposite them; he had his amber eyes fixed on Nightpaw and was muttering nonstop under his breath.

"He's...jinxing the wings," Fawnpaw whispered hurriedly to her friend.

"So what do we do?"

"Leave it up to me."

Before Redpaw could say anything else quickly, Fawnpaw had slipped away from his side. Redpaw turned the binoculars back on Nightpaw. His wings were vibrating so hard that it looked almost impossible for him to hang on anymore.

The whole crowd was on its paws, watching and terrified, as the Weasley twins flew up to try and pull Nightpaw safely into their paws, but it was no good. Every time they got very much near him, the wings would just glide higher still. They dropped lower and circled right beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell.

Meanwhile, Flintclaw seized the Qualify and scored five times without anyone noticing.

"Hurry, Fawnpaw," Redpaw muttered desperately as he watched the bigger tom score repeatedly.

The light brown tabby she-cat had fought her way across to the stand where Brokenfang sat, and she was now racing along the row behind him; she didn't even stop to apologize as she, by pure accident, knocked Quailflight headfirst into the row in front. Reaching Brokenfang, she crouched down, whipped her tail-wand around, and whispered a few choice words. Brilliant azure flames shot from her tail-wand onto the dark tabby's pelt.

"Fire! You're on fire!" one cat shouted.

It took perhaps thirty seconds for Brokenfang to just realize that he was on fire. A sudden sharp yowl told Fawnpaw that she had done her job well. Scooping the fire off of him and into a small container in her cape, she dashed back along the row; Brokenfang would never know what had happened. Thankfully, that was enough. Up in the air, Nightpaw was suddenly able to clamber back on to his wings and still chase after the Pinch.

"Don't worry, Toadpaw! You can look now!" Redpaw mewed to Toadpaw, who was previously wailing into Badgerstripe's fur for the last five minutes.

But as Toadpaw looked up and Fawnpaw got back to her seat, Nightpaw had crashed low to the ground and he was able to get back onto his paws. But the cats gasped when they saw him start to gag and his green eyes looked quite ill.

"Looks like he's gonna get sick!" Badgerstripe muttered worryingly.

But when he coughed, it wasn't a large chunky hairball that fell out; instead, something golden fell out of his mouth and into his paw. With a yowl of triumph, he held it in his jaws, stood on his hind legs, and waved it over his head; the game had ended in a confusing yet very exciting way.

Flintclaw was howling quite furiously, "He nearly swallowed it, not caught it!" But that didn't matter, for Nightpaw didn't break the rules and Quicktongue was happily yowling out the results of the match: "Unbelievable! The game has ended with one hundred and seventy points to sixty! The young LionClan Seeker has gotten his team an extra one hundred and fifty points!"

And while hearing all of the cheers and hisses from the audience, Nightpaw was surrounded by the LionClan AirBall team, chanting, "Go, go, LionClan! Go, go, LionClan!"

This was truly the best game he had ever played in his life.

**...**

After the game was over and all the cats went on back to the castle, Nightpaw was being made a mug of hot chocolate back in Badgerstripe's cabin with Redpaw and Fawnpaw.

"Nonsense! Why would he try to harm ya?" the tiger-sized cat was meowing to the Golden Trio. The three cats had told him about everything that Brokenfang had tried to do.

"It _was_ him," Redpaw piped up quickly. Then he meowed to Nightpaw, "Fawnpaw and I really had seen him. He was cursing your wings, muttering something. He just wouldn't keep his eyes off of you."

Badgerstripe just shook his great broad head as he muttered again, "Nonsense! He's a freakin' mentor at the freakin' Forest! Why would he try to kill ya?"

Nightpaw, Redpaw, and Fawnpaw just looked at one another, wondering what thing to tell him. Finally, Nightpaw decided on the truth by telling him, "Just yesterday, we found out something about Brokenfang. He tried to get past that three-headed dragon on Halloween and it bit him. We think he was trying to pilfer whatever it's guarding."

Badgerstripe dropped the hot chocolate as he rasped, "Hold the phone. How in StarClan's name do you know about Flopsy?"

"_FLOPSY?__?_" all three young cats gasped.

"That thing has a name?" Fawnpaw squeaked shrilly.

"Of course she's got a name! She's my dragon!" the large black tomcat purred proudly. "I was the one who got her fully grown from an Italian cat that I met at the bar last year! And I decided to let Silverstar borrow Flopsy so that she could guard the..."

Nightpaw and his friends seemed to nod at him to go on with their eyes (green, blue, and amber) sparkling with a thirst for knowledge. That's because the gamekeeper looked over at them and stammered, "Uh...no more questions, okay? That's very secret. Top secret!"

"But Brokenfang's trying to steal it."

"Nonsense!" Badgerstripe growled again. "I've already told you this before: Brokenfang's a freakin' mentor at the freakin' Forest! He wouldn't do nothin' of the sort!"

"So why did he just try and kill Nightpaw?" Fawnpaw challenged him. It seemed the afternoon's events certainly changed her mind about the dark tabby now. "I know a skillful curse when I see one, Badgerstripe. I've read all about them! You know that! You've gotta keep your eyes on the cat at all times, and he wasn't blinking at all! I saw him!"

Badgerstripe slammed his mug of hot chocolate down roughly onto the table as he growled, "For the last time, you're wrong, the pair of ya! Even I don' know why Nightpaw's wings acted like that, but Brokenfang wouldn' try and kill a cat! Now listen to me, kids: you're meddlin' in stuff that doesn't concern yeh. It's dangerous! Forget Flopsy, and forget what she's guardin'! That's between Silverstar and Flamestone Flamel..."

Now Nightpaw realized that there was indeed a clue in the large black cat's meow. But the question was who this Flamestone cat could be.

The gamekeeper gaped at him in awe before shaking his head as if he was angry at himself as he muttered, "I shouldn't have said that. I should _not_ have said that..."

When the Golden Trio thanked him for the hospitality and left his cabin, Nightpaw meowed to his friends out loud, "I wonder who this Flamestone cat is." To Fawnpaw, he asked her, "Do _you _know who that is?"

Fawnpaw just shook her head and meowed, "Looks like we'll have to find out one way or another."

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: There! I'm already less than halfway through with this story and I'll be creating a follow-up in no time! Plus, I got Flopsy from King Bumi's pet goat-gorilla from Avatar: The Last AirBender, which I don't own.**

**Katara: I remember Flopsy! He's actually adorable if you get to know him. Plus, it sounds really weird giving that name to a female dragon. And it's weird to give that name to a frightening Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.**

**AvatarCat11: I agree with you there, but look at Fluffy from Harry Potter! He's got a cute name despite being fearsome!**

**Anyways, I'd really like it if someone reviews. I'm just gonna think of which prizes to give out, but it won't be long now! Plus, up next is the cat form of The Mirror of Erised!**

**AvatarCat11 and Katara: See ya next time!**


	12. Mirror of Desire

**AvatarCat11: It's been yet another long day of school, but at least tomorrow's Friday! Plus, I can't wait to get Pokémon White Version in a few more weeks! My Pokémon for my White Version will be Samurott, Victini, Simisage, Unfeazant, Zebstrike, and Excadrill.**

**Holly: I can't wait either! Last Saturday, Genki and I saw the new Pokémon series on the Cartoon Network channel! It was amazing!**

**Katara: I agree also. And I really liked that new Professor named Professor Juniper! She looked so pretty!**

**AvatarCat11: I agree with ya on that! (Katara gives him a weird look and he clears his throat) Um...anyways...so fanfic-meister, would you like to say the disclaimer? You haven't read this series yet.**

**fanfic-meister: (Comes in) Thank you, AvatarCat. And thank you also, Katara and Holly!**

**Disclaimer: Just like on Avatar Cat: The Last AirClan Cat, AvatarCat11 will never own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats. And this will be a Christmas chapter despite being February already!**

**Updating Date: February 19, 2011**

**Everyone in the room: Enjoy!**

**...**

_The Mirror of Desire_

Christmas was coming just right around the corner. One morning in the middle of December, the Forest and its island woke to find themselves covered in several fox-lengths of snow. The lake froze solid into ice, the sea was still unfrozen, geese were flying south for this coming leaf-bare, and Berrytail and Cherrynose were rebuked for making snowballs follow Quailflight around, bouncing off the back of his turban.

The small number of owls that fought their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be brought back to health by Badgerstripe before they could fly off again. And even Katara was just among some of those owls. Still, no one could wait for the holidays to start.

While the LionClan common room and the Great Hall had some roaring fires, the warm breezy corridors had become freezing and a cold wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. The worst thing was Brokenfang's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a haze before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons. And some similar cats' hearts had become even colder.

"Oh, I feel so _sorry _for the poor saps who have to stay at the Forest for Christmas," Icepaw was telling Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw at one Potions class. "It's because their precious _Twolegs _don't want them."

He turned around in his seat to sneer at Nightpaw while his two stupid cronies chuckled evilly. But Nightpaw, who was just minding his own business and measuring porcupine quills, just ignored them all because Fawnpaw had told him and Redpaw to ignore him.

Ever since the last AirBall match, Icepaw had become even more cruel than usual. Since he was angry that ViperClan lost, the British Shorthair tried to make the other cats laugh about a mouse replacing Nightpaw as Seeker. But instead, they were angry at him because they were impressed with the black cat for staying attached to his wings. So he went right back to taunting Nightpaw about not having a family.

It was true that Nightpaw wasn't going back to Wrangell for Christmas, for Thistleheart had come around the quarter-moon before, making a list of cats staying for the holidays. Nightpaw signed up at once; he didn't feel sorry for himself at all and he thought this would be the best Christmas he ever had. Redpaw and his brothers were staying, too, because their parents and sister were going to the rainforest of Gabon in Africa to visit Clawfoot.

When the Golden Trio left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large northern pine tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous paws sticking out right at the foot and a noisy panting sound told them that Badgerstripe was behind it.

Redpaw greeted him by sticking his head through the branches and mewing, "Hey, Badgerstripe! You need any help?"

"Nah, I'm okay for now," Badgerstripe puffed. "But thanks for the help anyways."

"Get the hell out of the way!"

Icepaw and his cronies had appeared behind them and the British Shorthair was speaking coldly. Leering at Redpaw, he sneered, "Trying to get extra money, are you? Do you think you're going to be at least a gamekeeper when you leave here? I think that log cabin reminds you of that pigsty you call a home!"

Redpaw's ginger fur was bristling, his claws unsheathed, and he leaped at Icepaw...just when Brokenfang came to view.

"WEASLEY!"

The ginger-furred American Shorthair scowled as he climbed off of Icepaw, who was sneering at him.

Badgerstripe stuck his broad head from around the pine tree and protested, "Leave him alone, Brokenfang. He was just insulted! Icepaw offended his family!"

"Even though I agree with you, fighting in a non-warrior way is against the rules of the Forest," Brokenfang silkily retorted. "Weasley, I'm taking five points from LionClan and you better be thankful it's not fifty. Now move along!"

Sneering that their mentor stuck up for them and bullied another cat, Icepaw and his henchmen rudely shoved past the pine tree and scattered pine needles everywhere. Nightpaw looked around and saw rage blazing in Redpaw's blue eyes, and he agreed with him. He really hated Brokenfang and Icepaw; they weren't acting like true warriors in his eyes.

"Just wait till I get my paws on Icepaw!" Redpaw snarled, displaying his fangs at the retreating figure of the black-&-silver tabby tom. "Oh, I'll so get him one day!"

"I hate him too," Nightpaw agreed, nodding. "Him and Brokenfang."

Badgerstripe set the pine tree down for a little bit as he meowed, "Aw, come on, kids! Cheer up! Christmas is in the air! I'll tell ya what: come with me to the Great Hall. It looks so nice!" Then he picked up the pine tree again in his jaws and hauled it into the Hall. Nightpaw and his friends exchanged looks before following their giant friend.

In the Great Hall, Thistleheart and Shortlegs were busy with the Christmas decorations. "Ah, there you are Badgerstripe." Shortlegs was meowing to the big black tomcat. "There's the last tree! Just put it in the far corner please, would you?"

While the giant black tom helped them out, Nightpaw saw that the hall looked very spectacular. Decorations of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve gigantic Christmas trees stood around the room; some trees were sparkling with tiny icicles and some trees were glittering with hundreds of candles. After Badgerstripe was finished helping the older warriors, he turned back to the Golden Trio.

"So how many days do ya got before yer holidays?"

"Just one," Fawnpaw meowed. "Oh yeah! That reminds me! We should go over to the library soon before lunch."

"Oh yeah. You're right," Redpaw mewed, tearing his eyes away from Shortlegs. The short-legged tom had golden bubbles blossoming out of his tail-wand and he was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" Badgerstripe repeated, following the Golden Trio out of the hall. "You're goin' there right before the holidays? Bit keen into studying, ain't yeh?"

Nightpaw shook his head quickly and corrected him cheerfully, "No, we're not working right at the moment. We've just been trying to find out who this Flamestone Flamel was ever since you mentioned him to us. It was after the AirBall match."

Badgerstripe's dark amber eyes widened with shock.

"WHAT?" he howled. After seeing cats look at him curiously, he dropped his voice and growled to the Golden Trio, "Look, you three. I thought I told ya to drop it! It's none of yer business with what that dragon's guardin'!"

Fawnpaw tilted her head at him. "What? We just wanna know who he was, that's all."

"Unless you just wanna tell us and get it over with?" Nightpaw spoke up, backing her up. "We can't find him and we've already went through many books. Just give us a hint! We could've read his name somewhere! I can feel it!"

Badgerstripe shook his head and growled flatly, "No way. I'm not sayin' nothin'."

"Well, let's just look him up ourselves," Redpaw told his friends as they left Badgerstripe looking disgruntled and padded over to the library.

**...**

They were really searching books for Flamestone's name ever since Badgerstripe had by pure accident let the...um, weasel, out of the bag, because how else were they going to find out what Brokenfang was trying to steal? The trouble was that it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamestone would've done to get himself into a book.

_Hmm... This is gonna be difficult._

He wasn't in Great Warriors of the Twentieth Century, or Outstanding Cat Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Wildcat Discoveries, and A Study of New Growth in Warriorism. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; lots of books on thousands of shelves, and hundreds of narrow rows were all around them.

Fawnpaw took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Redpaw padded down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Nightpaw wandered over to the Restricted Section because he had been wondering for a while if Flamestone wasn't somewhere in there.

Unfortunately, a cat needed a specially signed note from one of the mentors to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books that contained powerful Dark Magic never taught at the Forest, and only read by older cats studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"What are you looking for, child?" Dustcloud, the brown tabby librarian, growled.

"Erm...nothing?"

Dustcloud just waved a feather duster at him and hissed, "You'd better get out, then. Go on! Out!"

Wishing that he was quicker at thinking up some story, Nightpaw quickly ran from the library. He, Redpaw, and Fawnpaw had already agreed that they would not ask Dustcloud where they could find Flamestone, for they were sure she would tell them, but they couldn't risk Brokenfang hearing what they were up to.

The Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix waited outside in the corridor to see if the other two cats found anything, but he wasn't too hopeful. They had been looking for a half-moon, after all, but because they only had odd moments between lessons, it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search without Dustcloud breathing down their necks.

Five minutes later, Redpaw and Fawnpaw joined him, shaking their heads and their whiskers twitching with disappointment. They went off to lunch together when Fawnpaw turned to her friends.

"Any luck?" she asked him.

Nightpaw shook his head in reply and told her, "Not yet."

Looking at the suitcase she was dragging from a wagon, Redpaw commented, "I see you just packed."

The light brown tabby she-cat responded, "And I see you haven't."

"Didn't you know? My family's off to Africa for Christmas to visit my brother Clawfoot," he told her.

"That's nice." Then she asked, "Are you gonna keep looking while I'm gone? And can you send an owl to me if you find anything?"

"Sure!" Redpaw meowed. Then he added slyly, "And you could ask your parents if they know anything about Flamestone. Is it safe to ask them?"

Fawnpaw nodded and mewed sarcastically, "Yeah, sure. They're therapist cats for my dentist Twolegs' patients, after all. Maybe you can try the Restricted Section again."

And when Fawnpaw padded away, Redpaw leaned towards Nightpaw and muttered, "I think we've become a bad influence to her."

**...**

Once the holidays had started, the two toms were having too good a time to think about the mysterious Flamestone. They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was much emptier than usual, so they got the good armchairs by the fire. They would sit by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork (bread, mice, marshmallows) and plot ways of getting Icepaw exiled, which were fun to talk about even though they knew they wouldn't work.

Redpaw also started teaching Nightpaw warrior chess. This was exactly like Twoleg chess except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing platoons in battle. Redpaw's set was very aged and scruffy. Like everything else he owned, it once belonged to another cat in his family, probably his grandfather. However, old chessmen weren't a weakness at all. Redpaw knew them so well that he never had trouble getting them to do what he wanted.

Nightpaw played with chessmen that Sandpaw let him borrow, and they didn't trust him at all. He wasn't a very good player at this yet (_And never will be, he thought._) and they kept shouting different bits of advice at him, which was confusing like "Don't send me there! Can't you see his knight over there? Send _him_ over there! We can afford to lose _him_."

**...**

On Christmas Eve, Nightpaw went to sleep, looking forward to the next day for the fresh-kill and the fun, but not expecting any presents at all since he hadn't gotten a lot from the past ten Christmases. Nevertheless, when he woke early in the morning, the first thing he saw when he padded into the common room was Redpaw standing near two piles of packages next to the tree.

"Merry Christmas, buddy," Redpaw yawned merrily as Nightpaw padded to him, stretching his forelegs while yawning.

"Merry Christmas to you too," Nightpaw mewed back, feeling happier. Then, looking at the red-and-green collar on his friend's neck, he asked him, "What're you wearing?"

The American Shorthair replied, "What, this? I always wear this at Christmas time!"

Nightpaw nodded before turning to his pile. "Look at this here! I got presents!"

Redpaw turned to his own pile, which was a lot bigger than Nightpaw's, and purred, "Yeah, well, what'd you expect? Moles?"

Padding over to his friend, Nightpaw picked up the top parcel from his pile. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was _To Nightpaw, from Badgerstripe._ Inside was a roughly cut timber flute; the huge tomcat had clearly carved it himself. When Nightpaw blew it, it sounded a bit like a songbird.

A second, very small parcel contained a note.

_We received your message and enclosed your Christmas present for you. From, Uncle Bristle and Aunt Tulip._

And there was a Twoleg quarter taped to the note.

"Oh, that's nice of them," Nightpaw meowed sarcastically, even though he was amused. They just seemed to not get it.

But Redpaw was very amazed and fascinated about the Twoleg quarter. "Wow! This is Twoleg money? This is one weird shape!"

Nightpaw pushed it gently to him and he felt amused at his friend's wonder. Then he meowed, "You can keep it if you want. So there are some gifts from Badgerstripe and my relatives so far. What about the others?"

"I can tell you who those presents are from. I told my mom that you didn't receive many gifts from your kittypet relatives," Redpaw replied, pointing his tail to the two piles of presents under the tree. He padded over to a lumpy parcel, tore the paper off warily with his claw, and groaned. "Oh, great StarClan, no. She helped my owner make you a cat sweater."

Then Nightpaw took the chance to tear open the parcel to find a broad, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green perhaps to match his eye color. And beside it was a large box of home-produced fudge.

Redpaw looked over to his friend and meowed, "I hate burgundy, but it's what I get every year. In fact, she and Samantha make us sweaters every Christmas."

"But that seems really nice of them to do that," Nightpaw purred, trying some of the fudge. It tasted really good. The flavors included chocolate filling, caramel, or marshmallow inside like a grub digging gladly into a piece of bark.

His next present also contained chocolate: it was a large box of Chocolate Toads from Fawnpaw. Nightpaw reminded himself to thank her once she got back to the Forest. Now, after opening his other gifts, there was one parcel left to open. Nightpaw picked it up and felt it; it was very light and very soft. He unwrapped it and something furry and silver went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds.

Redpaw gasped, "I...I think I've heard of those before!" He swiftly looked up from sorting his Every Flavored Skittles he got from Fawnpaw as he padded over to his friend. Nightpaw could see the amazement in his blue eyes as they both stared down at the silver thing on the ground. "I think those are rare and valuable."

"What is it?"

"I don't remember," the ginger tom meowed with a look of awe on his face. "Try it on and I'll try and remember."

So the longhaired black tomcat picked the shining, silvery furry stuff off the floor in his jaws; it was strange to the touch, like water woven into solid material. Then Nightpaw threw the extra pelt around his shoulders and Redpaw let out a yowl of shock.

"Wow! Look!"

Nightpaw looked down at his own four paws, but they were completely gone. He sprinted over to the mirror, and sure enough, his reflection was looking back at him, but it was just his own head suspended in midair, his body fully invisible. He pulled the extra pelt over his head and his own reflection vanished completely.

_Wow! It makes my body invisible!_

Redpaw shook his head in pure shock and yowled, "I remember now! It's a genuine Invisibility Pelt!"

Nightpaw leaped around as if he was trying to catch his tail...if it weren't too hard to see right now. Then he noticed for the first time that a note had fallen out of the Invisibility Pelt. While he was still wearing the Invisibility Pelt over his shoulders, he padded over to the small note to pick it up.

"Did that just drop out?" Redpaw asked him suddenly.

Nightpaw nodded and the two cats looked down at the note with interest. Written in some kind of slender loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words that made him both very confused and very amazed:

_Your father left this in my possession the night before he was killed._

_It is time that it was returned to you._

_Use it well._

_A Very Merry Christmas to you._

The black cat looked closer to inspect the note some more, but there was no signature. Nightpaw stared down at the note while Redpaw was busy admiring the extra pelt.

"Great StarClan! I'd give anything to get one of these!" he moaned with delight. "_Anything!_ Hey, Nightpaw! What's the matter, buddy?"

"Nothing. It just says 'Use it well,' that's all," Nightpaw answered.

He felt strange inside as if a tapeworm was digging inside his belly. Who sent the Invisibility Pelt over to him? Had it really once belonged to his father? If so, he wondered why this cryptic cat took a long time to give it to him. All the same, he was glad he had something that reminded him of his father. All the same, he also wished that he had something that reminded him of his mother.

But right before he could say or think anything else, the dormitory door was flung open and both Berrytail and Cherrynose bounded in. To make sure they didn't look, Nightpaw stuffed the extra pelt quickly out of sight. He didn't feel like sharing it with anyone else yet.

"Season's greetings, you two!"

"Hey, look! Nightpaw's got a sweater like us!"

Both ginger tomcats were wearing blue and yellow sweaters, one with a large yellow B on it, the other a blue C. "Nightpaw's sweater is better than ours, though," Berrytail, holding up the young apprentice's sweater. "She clearly makes more of a try if you're not family."

"Hey, Redpaw? Why don't you wear your own sweater?" Cherrynose demanded his younger brother. "Come on, get it on! They're charming and warm."

"I hate burgundy," Redpaw moaned unexcitedly as he pulled it over his head anyways.

Cherrynose looked on with amusement and commented, "Well, I suppose that Samantha thinks that you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid! We know that we're called Berrynose and Cherrytail."

Immediately, another cat had come into the common room to join up with them...but reluctantly. Sandthorn Weasley had just stuck his head through the door, looking judgmental. He had clearly gotten halfway through fixing to unwrap his presents as he, too, carried a lumpy sweater over his arm, which Berrytail seized.

"It's P for prefect! But it should've been S for Sandthorn. Get it on, Sandthorn! Come on! We're all wearing ours! Look, even Nightpaw got one from Samantha."

"No... Don't...want..." Sandthorn groaned in a thick layer of clothing because both Berrytail and Cherrynose had forced the sweater over his head.

Cherrynose purred amusingly, "And you won't sit with the prefects today. Christmas is a time for family, after all."

Then together, the two ginger American Shorthairs grabbed Sandthorn by the scruff of his neck and sweater, then they dragged him from the room, his front legs pinned to his side by his cat sweater.

**...**

In all of his short life, Nightpaw (joined by Katara, who was to go migrating to the South later on) had never had such a wonderful Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys and geese; mountains of ham and mashed potatoes; platters of corn on the cob; bowls of green beans, silver boats of thick rich gravy and cranberry sauce, and pile of gift baskets every few kit-lengths along the table.

These incredible party favors were nothing like the Twoleg ones that Daniel usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside. Nightpaw reached into a basket with Berrytail and it didn't just bang. It went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of navy smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several thrushes. Up at the High Table, Silverstar swapped his pointed hat for a flowered hat, and he was laughing cheerfully at a joke Shortlegs just told him.

Warm Christmas peanut-butter and chocolate cake followed the turkey and Sandthorn more or less broke his front canine fangs on a silver Sickle rooted into his piece of cake (which had some crunchy cat treats on top). Then Nightpaw watched Badgerstripe blushing hard with happiness as he called for more wine, finally ending up licking the normally strict Thistleheart on the cheek. And to Nightpaw's surprise, the deputy giggled and blushed, her tail lashing with happiness.

When Nightpaw finally left the table, he was loaded down with a mound of things right out of the baskets, including a pack of non-exploding luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Ears kit, and his own new warrior chess set. The thrushes had flown away and Nightpaw was afraid that they were going to end up as Mr. Sniffer's Christmas dinner. But he shook the thought away because cats eat thrushes too.

Then Nightpaw and the Weasley cats spent a joyful afternoon having an epic snowball fight on the grounds; Nightpaw was easy to hit because his black pelt stood out like snow in the summer. Then, cold and soaked and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the LionClan common room, where Nightpaw set his new chess set aside by losing spectacularly to Redpaw. He just suspected that he wouldn't lose so badly if Sandthorn hadn't tried to help him so much. _Oh well._

After a meal of turkey sandwiches, cupcakes, cookies, and some more Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and tired to do much before bed except sit and watch Sandthorn pursue Berrytail and Cherrynose all over the LionClan tower because they stole his prefect badge.

**...**

It had been Nightpaw's best Christmas day he had ever had; it was even better than spending Christmas with Daniel.

But despite all that, something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day along. Just when he was able to leap into his nest and curl up into a fluffy ball, he was free to think about this: the Invisibility Pelt and whoever sent it to him.

Redpaw, who was full of turkey and cake and with nothing strange to bother him, fell asleep almost as soon as he had drawn the curtains of his four-poster nest. Nightpaw leaned over the side of his own nest and pulled the extra pelt out from under it.

_This was Darkfire's, _he thought. This had been his father's Invisibility Pelt. He pulled it onto his nest and let the material flow over his front paws; it was smoother than silk and light as air. _Use it well_, the note had said.

He had to try it now...no matter what happened. He jumped out of his nest and wrapped the extra pelt around himself and over his back and shoulders. Looking down at his front legs, the only things he saw were moonlight and shadows coming from the windows. It was an awfully funny feeling to him, but he ignored it.

_Use it well. _All of a sudden, Nightpaw felt fully awake and nocturnal. The whole castle of the Forest was open to him in this extra pelt. Excitement flooded through him like floodwater on the sun-drown-place as he stood there absently in the dark and silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Oscar would never know or catch him in the act.

Redpaw grunted in his sleep and Nightpaw looked over his shoulder to glance at his sleeping friend; should he wake him up? But something held him back...his father's Invisibility Pelt... He felt that this time, for the first time ever, he wanted to use it alone.

He moved stealthily out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole. "Who goes there?" the Fat Queen barked, but Nightpaw said nothing. As quietly as he could, he padded quickly down the passageway.

_Where should I go now?_ He stopped, his heart racing hard, and thought harder than Tubby ever could. And then it came to him: The Restricted Section in the library. Making up his mind at last, he dashed off, securing the Invisibility Pelt tight onto his shoulder as he padded away to his next destination.

The library was completely dark and very ghostly. Nightpaw found a lamp and lit it in his jaws to see his way along the rows of books. The lamp looked as if it was floating along in midair and not by a pair of jaws, and even though Nightpaw could feel his arm supporting it, the sight made him fell a little frightened.

The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Slinking carefully under the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, the Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix held up his lamp to read the titles. They didn't tell him much, however. Their shedding faded gold letters spelled words in languages that Nightpaw couldn't understand. Some books had no title on them at all. One book even had a dark blemish on it that looked dreadfully like blood.

The fur on the back of Nightpaw's neck bristled with fear. Maybe he was just imagining it, then again, maybe not, but he thought that he heard a faint whispering coming from the books, as if they knew that a cat was prowling around there and shouldn't be. But he did have to begin somewhere. So he set the lamp carefully down onto the ground and looked along the bottom shelf for an interesting book. A large black-&-silver book caught his eye, so he pulled it out with difficulty, because it was quite heavy, and let it fall open quietly onto the floor.

A piercing spine-chilling screech split the silence, for the book was screaming! Nightpaw used his paws to shut it, but the screech went on, one high steady loud note. He stumbled backwards and knocked over his lamp, which broke its glass at once. Panicking, he heard pawsteps coming down the passageway outside; as soon as he finished stuffing the screeching book back on the shelf, he fled for his life.

He passed by Oscar in the doorway; the dark brown tom's pale, crazy eyes looked right through him. Nightpaw quickly slipped under Oscar's outstretched front paw and streaked off through the corridor, the book's screech still ringing in his ears.

He came to an unexpected halt in front of a tall statue of a Sky Bison. He was so busy trying to get away from the library that he didn't paid attention to where he was going. Perhaps because it was dark, he didn't recognize where he was at all. There was a Sky Bison statue right near the kitchens, he knew that, but he was probably five floors above there.

"You asked me to come straight to you, sir, if a cat was wandering around at night. Well, I must tell you that somebody's been in the library Restricted Section."

Nightpaw felt horror creep into his pelt like an army of angry ants. Wherever he was, Oscar must know a shortcut, because his rough raspy voice was getting nearer, and to his dismay, it was the dark tabby cat Brokenfang who replied, "The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far! We'll catch them."

Nightpaw stood rooted to the spot as the two older cats padded just about the corner ahead. They couldn't see him, of course, but it was quite a narrow passageway and if they came much nearer, they'd knock right into him. The extra pelt didn't stop him from being solid, of course.

He backed away as silently as he could without a sound. A door stood partly open to his left and it was his only hope.

So he squeezed through it, holding his breath and trying not to move it. And, to his relief, he managed to get inside the room without the two cats noticing anything. They padded right past him, and Nightpaw leaned against the wall, breathing deeply and listening to their pawsteps to die away. That was close, very close. It was just a few seconds before he noticed anything about the room he hid himself in.

It looked like an unused classroom; the shady shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upside down trashcan, but propped against the wall and facing him was something that didn't look as if it belonged there. It was something that looked as if a cat put it there to keep it out of the way.

It was a large and very magnificent mirror as high as the ceiling and it came with an elaborate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top:

_I show not your face but your heart's desire._

His panic was fading now that there was no sound of Oscar and Brokenfang. So Nightpaw just inched nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at himself but see no reflection again. He stepped in front of it.

He had to quickly bite his tongue a little to stop himself from screeching in terror. He whirled around; his heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed. He had seen not just only himself in the mirror, but an entire multitude of cats standing right behind, beside, or in front of him.

But the room was empty. Breathing very fast, Nightpaw turned slowly back to the mirror.

There he was, reflected in it, pale and frightened, and there were at least ten others reflected behind him. Nightpaw looked over his shoulder, but there was still no one there. Or were they also invisible? Was he in fact in a room full of invisible cats and this mirror's trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not? He looked in the mirror again.

A she-cat sitting right behind his reflection was smiling at him and nodding to him; a tomcat was also sitting next to him. Nightpaw reached out a front paw and felt the air behind him. If the she-cat was really there, he would be able to touch her. Their reflections were so close together that he could feel it, but he felt only air; she and the others existed only in the mirror.

Nightpaw saw that she was a very beautiful she-cat. She had long dark ginger fur, her face was much narrower than a normal British Shorthair, and her eyes... _Her eyes are like mine!_ Nightpaw thought, edging a little closer to the glass. They were bright green, exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was weeping; she was smiling, but she was weeping at the same time.

The tall black-furred tom, standing next to her, nudged her gently on the shoulder with his muzzle and rested a white paw onto Nightpaw's shoulder. He had a large build to him and his pelt was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just like Nightpaw's did. Nightpaw was now so close to the mirror that he was nearly touching his reflection with his nose.

"Mom?" he whispered. "Dad?"

Lilypelt and Darkfire just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Nightpaw looked into the faces of the other Maine Coons on his father's side (even cats of mixed origins) in the mirror, and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other narrow muzzles like his, even an elderly brown Maine Coon who looked as though he had his large paws. Nightpaw was looking at his entire family tree for the first time in his life.

All of Nightpaw's long-gone family smiled and dipped their heads toward him in deep reverence and love, and Nightpaw stared happily back at them. He was on his back feet and his front paws were on the glass as if he would fall right through the mirror and join his family. The young black tomcat felt a powerful ache wrench in his heart, one of joy and sorrow.

He didn't know how long he had been standing there. The reflections didn't fade and he looked on at them until a far-away noise brought him back to his senses. He couldn't stay here for right now; he had to find his way back to his nest for the night. He tore his eyes away from his British Shorthair mother's face, whispered, "I'll be back. I promise," and ran from the room.

**...**

Redpaw grumbled the next morning, "I wish you woke me up."

"You can come with me this moonhigh. I'm going back. I want to show you the mirror."

"I'd like to see your parents," the American Shorthair mewed enthusiastically.

Nightpaw licked his paw and swiped it over his ear, meowing, "I'd also like to see your entire family. You could show me your brothers and everyone else."

Redpaw joined in grooming his friend as he meowed, "You can see them anytime you want if you'd like to come over this greenleaf. Anyways, maybe that mirror just shows dead cats. But it's a shame that we couldn't Flamestone anyways. So how about you get some wild boar bacon? You gotta eat something."

But Nightpaw couldn't eat much at all now. He had just seen his deceased parents and he would be seeing them again tonight. He had almost forgotten about Flamestone. Now he saw that it didn't seem very important anymore. He didn't care anymore about what the three headed silver dragon was guarding and he didn't care if Brokenfang stole it.

"Buddy, you okay?" Redpaw asked him. "You look weird."

**...**

Nightpaw feared that he wouldn't find the mirror room again; with Redpaw covered in the extra pelt, they had to pad there much more gradually the next night. They tried retracing Nightpaw's night-time course from the library, wandering around the dark passageways for nearly an hour.

Redpaw looked around and meowed, "Uh...it's getting cold out here. How about we forget it and go back?"

"No way!" Nightpaw hissed. "I know it's around here somewhere."

They passed by the ghost of a she-cat gliding in the opposite direction, but they saw no one else. And just as Redpaw started moaning that his paws were frozen, Nightpaw found the Sky Bison statue.

"It's here...just here...yes!"

They pushed the door open; Nightpaw dropped the extra pelt from around his shoulders and he quickly dashed over to the mirror. There they were: Lilypelt and Darkfire were nodding and smiling at the sight of their son.

"See?" Nightpaw whispered.

"I don't see anything."

Nightpaw hissed, "Look! Look at them all… there is a lot of them…"

Redpaw meowed, "But I only see you."

"Look in it properly. Go on. Sit where I'm at."

Nightpaw scooted over to one side, but now with Redpaw in front of the mirror, he couldn't see his entire family anymore, but he hoped that he could see Redpaw looking into the mirror with confused blue eyes.

Redpaw, though, was staring mesmerized at his own reflection. "Great StarClan! There's me!"

"Can you see your family?"

"No. I'm just alone. But I look older and I'm the Head Cat of my Clan!"

"Huh?"

Redpaw continued to stare into the mirror as he meowed, "I'm...I'm wearing the badge like my brother Birdstorm used to...and I'm holding the house cup and the AirBall Trophy. And holy shit! I'm the AirBall captain too! I look good!" Redpaw tore his eyes away from this fine sight to look eagerly at Nightpaw. "Do you think this mirror shows a cat the future?"

Nightpaw shrugged. "How should I know? My entire family is dead."

But right before they could fight over who gets the mirror, an unexpected noise outside in the passageway put an end to their little argument. Nightpaw and Redpaw didn't know that they were talking that loudly and making so much noise.

"Hurry!" Redpaw threw the silvery pelt back over their backs as the sharp glowing eyes of Mr. Sniffer came around the door. The two apprentices stood still in their spots, both thinking about the same thing; did the pelt work on ferrets? After what seemed a very long age, the ferret gave a squeak, turned, and left the room.

Redpaw looked back, sighed, and turned back to his friend, mewing, "This isn't safe. I think he could've have gone for Oscar. I bet he heard us. Let's go."

And the ginger tom pulled the black cat out of the room.

**...**

The snow still didn't melt the next morning.

"Wanna play chess?"

"No."

"Wanna visit Badgerstripe?"

"No."

Redpaw gave his friend a suspicious glance. "You're still thinking about that mirror, aren't you?" As if he had said yes, he went on in a serious voice, "Don't go back there tonight."

Nightpaw snorted. "Why not?"

Redpaw shrugged, looking very uncertain now. "I don't know. I've just got a bad feeling about this. And anyway, you've had too many close shaves already. And Oscar, Brokenfang, and Mr. Sniffer are wandering around right now at night. So what if they can't see you? What if they just bump into you? What if you break something?"

"You sound like Fawnpaw."

"Just don't go."

But Nightpaw didn't listen to him, for he had one thought in his head, which was to get back in front of the mirror, and Redpaw wasn't going to stop him no matter what.

**...**

That third nightfall, he found his way more hurriedly than he had before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise to make, but he didn't meet anyone, much to his own relief.

And there were his mother and father, Darkfire and Lilypelt, smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers (a gray tabby-&-white) nodding happily at him. Nightpaw decided to sit down on the floor in front of the mirror and watch his family. There was nothing that could stop him from staying here all night with his family. Nothing.

Except...

"Ah...so you're back again, Nightpaw?"

Nightpaw felt as though his internal organs had turned to cold ice. He looked behind him; sitting right on top of one of the desks by the wall was none other than Silverstar himself. Nightpaw had probably padded straight past him, so determined to get to that mirror that he hadn't noticed him.

"I...I didn't see you there, sir."

"It is rather strange how myopic being invisible can make you," Silverstar replied, and Nightpaw was now comforted at the sight of the silver tabby Persian purring and smiling. Then he leaped off of the desk and sat down on the floor next to Nightpaw, meowing, "So you, like many cats before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Desire."

"I didn't know it was called that, Sir."

Silverstar purred some more. "But I believe you now know what it does?"

"It shows me my family..."

"And it showed your friend Redpaw all himself as a Head Cat."

Nightpaw felt his eyes widen at that since he had no idea that the leader of the Forest had been watching him come to the room every night. He was just fixing to say something as if to ask him how he knew, but Silverstar, who might've known that was coming up, gave him a kind answer.

Silverstar just shrugged and replied, "Ah...I don't really need a pelt of invisibility. Do you know what this mirror show us?"

Nightpaw shook his head. "No, Sir."

"Then I shall explain. The happiest cat or Twoleg on earth could use the Mirror of Desire like any normal mirror does. That is, he or she would look into it and see himself or herself exactly as he is. Does that help you a little?"

Nightpaw thought this over, slowly taking it in. Then he mewed slowly, "It shows us what we want...and whatever we want..."

Silverstar rumbled slowly, "Well...yes and no. It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who never knew your family, see them standing around you. Redpaw, who is surpassed by his brothers, sees himself alone, better than them. However, this mirror gives us neither facts nor the truth. Cats have wasted away before it, spellbound by what they saw, or were driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is true or even promising.

"That is the reason why the Mirror will be going to a new home tomorrow, and please do not look for it again. If you _do_ run across it, be prepared. It is not rather good to dwell on dreams and forget to live. Remember that. Now, why don't you put that splendid pelt back on and go off to your nest?"

Nightpaw stood up and faced his leader, even though he was shorter. "Silverstar? May I ask you a question?"

Silverstar gave him a smile and purred, "Well, you've just done so. However, you may ask me one more question."

"What do you see when you yourself look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself playing with a new cat toy." Nightpaw stared at him with confusion and the silver tabby tom went on, "A cat can never really have enough cat toys. Another Christmas has come and gone, and I didn't get a single rubber mouse. Cats just insist on giving me books."

It was only when he was back in bed that Nightpaw discovered that Silverstar wasn't entirely truthful. But then, he thought, as he shoved Scrapper off of his pillow, it was maybe personal.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: Well, I gotta get to bed right now and I have to go to the school right at tomorrow morning. (Katara and Holly groan "Aww!") Yeah, I hate that too. It's quite a way to spoil the start of a weekend, but I have to do this.**

**Katara: But I know that it's important, right?**

**Holly: Yeah. I have to say that Katara and I are the lucky ones. But we wish you good luck. (Holly and Katara kiss AvatarCat11 on both cheeks, making him blush) Anyways, I'll say the review thing for tonight. (To the readers) Anyone who reviews will receive their favorite virtual ice cream flavors! **

**Katara: And remember: they pick whatever they choose!**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly: See ya next time!**


	13. Flamestone Flamel

**AvatarCat11: I'm gonna update Nightfang and the Elixir Stone once again and we also took a Harry Potter quiz on Friday! Plus, after this chapter is done, I'll only need four more chapters to go!**

**Holly: You sure worked hard on this story! I'm impressed!**

**Katara: And so am I! I'm so proud of you, AvatarCat!**

**AvatarCat11: (Blushes) Thanks! Since DaniPotterCedric'sGirl hasn't said the disclaimer for around a few chapters, how about we let her? Come on in!**

**DaniPotterCedric'sGirl: (Comes in) Thanks, AvatarCat! And you too, Katara and Holly! (Katara and Holly hand her two chocolate chip cookies) Thanks! Anyways...**

**Disclaimer: Every chapter says that he doesn't own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats. This one also counts as being part of the disclaimer!**

**Updating date: February 27, 2011**

**Everyone in the room: Enjoy!**

**...**

_Flamestone Flamel_

Already, Silverstar had warned Nightpaw to not go back and look for the mirror, and he listened well. So for the rest of the holidays, he kept the Invisibility Pelt under his luggage. But since he did, he wished that he could forget the mirror, but he just couldn't, for he started to have terrible nightmares. Many times, he dreamed of his parents falling dead to the ground in a bright green light and a demon roar filled with triumph.

When Nightpaw told Redpaw about the dreams, the ginger tom replied, "Silverstar was right. That mirror's making you lose your mind!"

Fawnpaw had come back the day before the second semester started and she took a different view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Nightpaw sneaking out of his nest, roaming the school for three nights in a row and disappointment that he didn't found out who this Flamestone Flamel was yet.

The Golden Trio had almost given up hope of ever finding Flamestone in a library book, even though Nightpaw was still sure he had read the name somewhere. Once term had started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Nightpaw had even less time than the other two, because AirBall practice had started again.

**...**

Treebranch Wood was working his AirBall team much harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't bring down his spirits. The Weasley twins complained that the big light brown tabby tom was becoming a fanatic, but Nightpaw disagreed with them. If they won their next match against BadgerClan, they would overtake ViperClan in the Clan finals for the first time in seven years. Apart from wanting to win this, Nightpaw discovered that he had fewer nightmares when he was tired out after training.

Then, during one particularly soaking and mud-covered practice session, Treebranch gave the cats of the team a bit of bad news. He just got very angry with Berrytail and Cherrynose, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off of their sets of wings.

"Stop that right now!" he growled. "That kind of bullshitting around is exactly what'll lose us the match! Brokenfang will be refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off of LionClan!"

This time, Cherrynose _did_ fall off of his wings at these words. "What the hell? _Brokenfang's_ refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed an AirBall match? He won't be fair if we pass ViperClan!" The rest of the team landed next to the ginger tom and began to complain, too.

"Don't blame ME!" Treebranch snapped. "We need to play a clean game so that Brokenfang won't pick on us."

This was good, Nightpaw thought to himself. But he had another reason for not wanting the dark tabby cat near him while playing AirBall.

**...**

The rest of the AirBall team hung back to talk to one another as usual at the end of practice, but Nightpaw headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room, where he found Redpaw and Fawnpaw playing warrior chess. Chess was the only thing that the light brown tabby she-cat ever lost at, something the two toms thought was very good for her.

"That's so barbaric!" Fawnpaw was growling as she watched her piece being shattered to bits by Redpaw's red piece.

Redpaw just shrugged and meowed, "That's warrior chess!" When Nightpaw sat down beside him, the ginger-furred cat meowed, "Don't talk to me right now. I'm trying to concentrate." But when he saw the look on his friend's face, he mewed, "Nightpaw? What's wrong, buddy?"

Speaking very silently to them so that no other cat would hear, Nightpaw told his two friends about Brokenfang's sudden sinister desire to be an AirBall umpire.

"Don't play."

"Say you're ill."

"Pretend to break your leg."

"REALLY break your leg."

Nightpaw shook his head and retorted, "No way! There isn't a reserve Seeker right now! If I back out, LionClan won't play at all." As Katara flew into the window after her flight to the south for the winter, Nightpaw went over to his owl and purred, "Hey, Katara. How was the trip, girl?" The female Barn Owl/Snowy Owl mix gave him a nip on the ears as an affectionate reply.

At that moment, Toadpaw suddenly toppled into the common room. How he had managed to climb through the portrait hole...nobody knew, for all four of his legs were stuck together with what they recognized at once as a Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to hop like a lopsided hare all the way up to the LionClan tower.

"Toadpaw, it's all right now. What happened?" Fawnpaw asked Toadpaw, leading him over to sit with the other members of the Golden Trio.

"It...it was...Icepaw..." rasped Toadpaw so shakily that the other cats looked away. "I met him outside the library. He said he was looking for someone to practice that on."

"Just go to Thistleheart!" the Angora mix urged him. "Report him!"

But the Exotic Shorthair shook his head. "But I don't want to cause trouble," he mumbled.

"Look, Toadpaw, you've got to stand up for yourself and up to him!" Redpaw meowed fiercely. "He's used to always padding over cats and treating them like shit, but you can't just lie down in front of him and make it easier for him!"

Toadpaw shot him an exasperated look. "How? I can barely stand up!"

Sandpaw, who seemed to hear the whole conversation, rush forward. "I'll do the counter curse. Just hold still."

"Oh, sure. That's all I need!" Toadpaw snapped; being like this was making him touchy. "And it's for you to set my paws on fire!"

"I don't really like the offer, Toadpaw," the sand-colored Manx growled. "Besides, if anyone cared to notice, the fur on my ears has completely grown back!" He stalked off crossly, showing a large chunk of fur missing from the back of his head.

"But anyways, there's no need to tell me that I'm not brave enough to be in LionClan. He...he already did just that," Toadpaw choked out.

Feeling sorry for him and wanting to cheer him up, Nightpaw reached into his red bag and pulled out a Chocolate Toad, the very last one from the box that Fawnpaw gave to him for Christmas. Then he gave it to Toadpaw, who took it into his jaws and looked as though he might cry. He had given Fawnpaw two for a thank-you from Christmas (and he gave some to Redpaw too), but he wasn't planning on eating the last one.

Every other cat began laughing as he hopped over except for Fawnpaw. She glared at the other cats, leapt up from her seat, and performed the counter curse. The brown tabby tom's legs sprang apart and he got to his paws, trembling.

"Listen, you're always going to be braver than he'll ever be," Nightpaw reassured him. "The Sorting Collar chose you to be a good and valuable cat of LionClan, right? And you know where it placed Icepaw? In fucking ViperClan."

Toadpaw's lips twitched in a weak smile as he started unwrapping the toad and dipped his head to him with respect. "Thanks, Nightpaw. I...I think I'll get some sleep. You collect warrior cards, right? You can have this one in here if you like."

As Toadpaw padded away from the Golden Trio, Nightpaw looked at the Famous Warrior Cat card. "It's Silverstar again," he mewed. "He was the first one I ever..." But suddenly, a thought struck him harder than a badger's paw. He gasped and stared at the back of the card. Then he looked up at the other two with excitement.

"I found him!" he whispered. "I found Flamestone! I told you that I read him somewhere before! I read it on the train coming here! Listen: 'Silverstar is famous for defeating the dark warrior Beartalon in 1965, for the discovery of the twelve uses of griffin blood and his work on alchemy with his partner,_ Flamestone Flamel!'"_

Immediately, Fawnpaw leaped up onto her four paws. She didn't look so excited since they got back the marks for their very first piece of homework. "Stay here!" she told the toms, and she ran up the stairs to the she-cats' dormitories. Nightpaw and Redpaw just had time to trade mystified looks before she was back, carrying an enormous old book in her jaws.

"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"Light reading?" meowed Redpaw, but Fawnpaw told him to shut up until she finished looking something up. She cleared her throat and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself.

At last she found what she was looking for. "Yeah! I knew it! I knew it!"

Redpaw sighed, "Can we talk now?" But Fawnpaw ignored him.

"Flamestone Flamel..." she whispered dramatically, "...is the only known maker of...the Elixir Stone!"

But she didn't expect for the two toms to meow, "Huh?"

Fawnpaw just rolled her amber eyes and growled, "Don't you two ever read? Look...read this there." She pushed the book toward the two toms, and Nightpaw and Redpaw read:

_The earliest study of alchemy is concerned with making the Elixir Stone, a legendary material with astounding powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal._

"Immortal?" Redpaw mewed.

Fawnpaw rolled her eyes again and meowed, "It means you can't die."

Redpaw began to retort, "I know what the word..." But Nightpaw silenced them with a warning hiss before they went on:

_There are many reports of the Elixir Stone over many moons, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Flamestone Flamel, the noted alchemist and jazz lover. Flamestone, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life near Baltimore, Maryland with his mate, Petalstem (six hundred and fifty-eight)._

"You see?" Fawnpaw mewed when Nightpaw and Redpaw finished reading. "That three-headed dragon's guarding Flamestone's Elixir Stone! I bet he asked Silverstar to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew that someone was after it! That's maybe the reason why he wanted the Stone moved out of Liverpool!"

Nightpaw gasped, "So there's a stone that makes gold and can stop you from ever dying! It's no wonder that Brokenfang's after it! Anyone would want it."

"Yeah. And it's no wonder we couldn't find Flamestone in that Study of Fresh Developments in Warriorism," Redpaw spoke up. "He's not exactly fresh if he's six hundred and sixty-five, huh?"

**...**

The next morning in Defense Against the Dark Arts, while the Golden Trio were copying down different ways of treating were-cat bites, Nightpaw and Redpaw were still discussing what they would do with an Elixir Stone if they had one. It wasn't until Redpaw said that he would buy his own AirBall team that Nightpaw remembered about Brokenfang and the approaching match.

"I'll play," he told his friends. "Because if I don't, ViperClan will think I'm just too afraid to face Brokenfang. I'll show them all. This'll wipe the smiles off their faces if we win."

"Just don't let us wipe you off the field," Fawnpaw answered him.

**...**

But as the match drew nearer, Nightpaw became even more nervous, whatever he told Redpaw and Fawnpaw. The rest of the team wasn't too calm, either. The idea of overtaking ViperClan in the Clan finals was wonderful; no one had done it for seven years. But would they be allowed to with such a prejudiced umpire?

Nightpaw didn't know whether he was imagining it or not, but he seemed to keep running into Brokenfang wherever he went. At times, he even wondered whether the dark brown tabby tom was following him, trying to catch him on his own in the shadows.

Meanwhile, Potions lessons were turning into a sort of weekly torture; Brokenfang was being so cruel to Nightpaw. Could the ViperClan Head possibly know they had found out about the Elixir Stone? The young black cat didn't see how he could, yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Brokenfang could read minds.

**...**

When his friends wished him good luck outside the locker rooms the next sunhigh, Nightpaw knew that they were wondering whether they would ever see him alive again.

_Oh that's a cheerful thought, _he scolded himself, but this wasn't what you could call comforting. Nightpaw didn't hear much of Treebranch's pep talk as he pulled on his AirBall cape and picked up his Icarus Three Thousand.

Meanwhile, Redpaw and Fawnpaw found a place in the stands next to Toadpaw, who couldn't understand why they looked so grim and worried, or why they had both brought their tail-wands to the match. Little did Nightpaw know that the other two Golden Trio members were secretly practicing the Leg-Locker got the idea from Icepaw using it on Toadpaw, and they were ready to use it on Brokenfang if he showed any sign of wanting to hurt their fellow friend.

"Now, don't forget, it's _Locomotor Mortis_," Fawnpaw murmured as Redpaw slipped his tail-wand onto his tail.

"I know. I know," Redpaw retorted. "Don't badger me."

**...**

Back in the locker room, Treebranch took Nightpaw aside. "Hey. I'm sorry to pressure you too much, Potter, but if we need an early capture of the Pinch, it's now. We need to finish the game before Brokenfang can favor BadgerClan too much."

"The whole school's out there!" Berrytail gasped with wonder, peering out the door. "...great StarClan! Silverstar's come to watch the match!"

Nightpaw's heart did a joyful somersault. "Silverstar?" he squeaked, racing to the door to make sure.

Berrytail was right after all; there was no mistaking that silver pelt, flattened face, or those bright blue eyes. Nightpaw wished that he could have laughed out loud with relief; he was now safe. There was absolutely no way Brokenfang would try to hurt him if Silverstar was watching the entire match.

Maybe that was why Brokenfang was looking so angry as the two teams marched onto the field, something that Redpaw quickly noticed, too. "Wow. I've never seen Brokenfang look madder than a fox in a fit," he told Fawnpaw. "Look! They're off...Ouch!"

Someone had poked Redpaw in the back of the head with their paw; it was Icepaw. "Oh, _sorry,_ Weasley. I didn't see you there."

The black-&-silver tabby British Shorthair grinned broadly at Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw. "I wonder how long Potter's going to stay on those wings this time? Does anyone wanna take a bet? What about you, Weasley?"

Redpaw didn't answer or snap back; he just saw Brokenfang award BadgerClan a penalty just because Berrytail had hit a Budger at him. Fawnpaw, who had all her claws unsheathed and her tail twitching, was squinting attentively up at Nightpaw, who was circling the game like a hawk and looking for the Pinch.

"I think I know how they choose cats for the LionClan AirBall team," Icepaw taunted noisily a few minutes later as Brokenfang awarded BadgerClan another penalty for no reason at all. "It's the cats they feel sorry for. There's Potter and he's got no parents at all. And then there are the Weasleys, who have no money. Longbottom, you should be on the team...you have no brains."

Toadpaw's cheeks turned bright red, but he turned in his seat to try and glare bravely at Icepaw. "I...I'm braver than you!" he stammered.

The three cruel ViperClan cats howled with laughter, but Redpaw, still not daring to take his blue eyes from the game, just meowed, "You tell 'em, Toadpaw."

Icepaw just sneered, "Longbottom, if brains were gold, you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's true."

Redpaw's nerves were already stretched to the breaking point with worry for Nightpaw. "I'm warning you, Icepaw! Just one word!"

"Redpaw!" Fawnpaw meowed out suddenly, "It's Nightpaw..."

"What? Where?"

The Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix had suddenly gone into an unbelievable drop, which drew gasps and cheers from all over the crowd. Fawnpaw stood up on her paws, her unsheathed claws now scraping the bark, as Nightpaw streaked toward the ground like a bullet. Suddenly, he began spinning around in circles as he kept going lower and lower, spinning like a paw from a monster.

"You're in luck, Weasley! Potter's spotted some money on the ground!" Icepaw sneered.

Suddenly, Redpaw snapped; right before the black-&-silver tabby cat knew what was happening, the American Shorthair leaped right on top of him, wrestling him to the ground. Both toms were fighting with claws unsheathed and fangs bared, ripping at each other's faces and clawing out large pieces of fur while biting each other's ears furiously. When the two cronies joined in the fight, Toadpaw hesitated, and then the tabby Exotic Shorthair scaled over the back of his seat to help.

"Go, Nightpaw!" Fawnpaw screamed, leaping onto her seat to watch as the black tomcat dived straight for Brokenfang; she didn't even notice Icepaw and Redpaw fighting under her seat, or even the scuffles and yelps coming from the slash of claws that were Toadpaw, Lobsterpaw, and Monkeypaw.

Up in the air, Brokenfang adjusted his wings to turn around just in time to see something scarlet shoot past him, missing him by inches; the next second, Nightpaw just pulled out of the dive, his head raised in triumph, the Pinch clasped in his fangs. The stands erupted; it was almost certainly a record, for no cat could ever remember the Pinch being caught so quickly.

"YES! Where are you, Redpaw? The game's all over! Nightpaw won! We won! LionClan's in the lead! WHOO!" Fawnpaw screeched very cheerfully, leaping up and down on her seat and embracing Daisypaw Patil in the row in front.

Just one fox-length from the ground, Nightpaw snapped the wings off of his back and leaped to the ground. He couldn't believe it. He did it. The game was over; it just lasted five minutes. As LionClan cats came spilling onto the field, he saw Brokenfang land nearby, shocked and angry. Then Nightpaw felt a tail on his shoulder and looked up into Silverstar's smiling face and bright blue eyes.

"Well done, young Nightpaw," the silver tabby Persian purred quietly so that only Nightpaw could hear. "It's nice to see that you haven't been brooding about that mirror. And you've been keeping yourself busy. Excellent."

Brokenfang didn't say anything, but he did spit bitterly on the ground.

**...**

Nightpaw padded out of the locker room alone later, to take his Icarus Three Thousand back to the storage. He couldn't ever remember feeling more contented; he had really done something to be proud of for the first time ever. No cat could say he was just a famous name any more.

The evening air of Alaska had never smelled so sweet in his life. He walked over the damp grass, reliving that last hour in his head, which was a happy haze: LionClan cats had been running to lift him onto their shoulders, and Redpaw and Fawnpaw were in the distance, jumping up and down. Despite Redpaw cheering through a heavy nosebleed, they looked so proud of him.

Nightpaw finally reached the shed and leaned against the wooden door; with a purr of joy, he looked up at the Forest castle, with its windows glowing red in the setting sun. LionClan was now in the lead. He did it. He showed Brokenfang.

And speaking of him...

A shadowy figure came swiftly down the front steps of the castle. Clearly not wanting to be seen, it ran as fast as possible toward the forbidden forest. Nightpaw's victory faded from his mind as he watched. He recognized the figure's prowling walk; it was Brokenfang, sneaking right into the swamp while everyone else was at dinner. What was going on?

Nightpaw clamped his Icarus Three Thousand back onto his back and he took off. As he was gliding silently over the castle, he saw the dark brown tabby tom enter the forest at a run and he followed Brokenfang into the shadowy trees.

The trees were so thick, dark, and sinister that he couldn't see where Brokenfang had gone. He flew in circles, lower and lower, brushing the top branches of trees until he heard voices. He landed in a branch and followed them by leaping in the branches toward them and he landed silently in a towering pine tree.

He climbed carefully along one of the branches, holding tight onto the branch with his claws, trying to see through the leaves. Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Brokenfang, but he wasn't alone. Quailflight was there, too; Nightpaw couldn't make out the look on his face, but the young brown-&-white tom was stuttering worse than ever. The black cat, thanks to blending into the shadows, strained to catch what they were saying.

"...d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Brokenfang..."

"Oh, I thought maybe we'd like to talk in private," Brokenfang hissed, his voice icy and his fur bristling. "The apprentices aren't supposed to know about the Elixir Stone, after all."

Nightpaw leaned forward until he was at the tip of his branch. Quailflight was just mumbling about something when Brokenfang interrupted him.

"Did you find out how to get past Badgerstripe's dragon yet?"

"B-b-but Brokenfang, I..."

"You better listen to me, Quailflight," Brokenfang growled, taking a step toward him. Then he pounced onto the European Shorthair, making him squeal as he pinned him to the ground.

"I-I don't know what you..."

"You know well what I mean."

A large Great Gray Owl suddenly hooted and flew off, making Nightpaw nearly fell out of the tree. Glaring after it, he steadied himself just in time to hear Brokenfang hiss, "I don't have time for your hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."

"B-but I d-d-don't..."

"Fine," Brokenfang cut in, getting off of him and giving him a scratch on the ear. "We'll find another good time for another little chat soon. We'll do that when you decide to think things over and decide where your loyalties lie." He licked the blood off of his claws and stalked out of the clearing.

It was almost dark now, but Nightpaw could see Quailflight standing quite still as though he was petrified. He felt sorry for the poor coward, he was thinking as he leaped from tree to tree out of the swamp and onwards to the castle.

**...**

"Nightpaw! Where the hell were you?" Fawnpaw thrilled with glee.

"We won! You won! We won!" Redpaw howled joyfully, butting Nightpaw gently on the left shoulder with his head. "I gave Icepaw a cut lip, and Toadpaw tried to beat Lobsterpaw and Monkeypaw all alone! He's still knocked out, but Poppyleaf says that he'll be okay. Talk about showing those assholes! Everyone's waiting for you in the common room! We're having a party right now! Berrytail and Cherrynose stole some cupcakes and stuff from the kitchens."

"Don't worry about that now," Nightpaw panted breathlessly; he had to put his wings away and run all the way back. "Let's find an empty room. Wait 'til you hear this..."

He made sure that the Joker wasn't inside before shutting the door behind them. Then he told his friends about what he had just seen and heard.

"So we were right all along! It _is_ the Elixir Stone, and Brokenfang's trying to force Quailflight to help him get it. He asked him if he knew how to get past Flopsy and he said something about his 'hocus pocus'. I think there are other things guarding the stone apart from Flopsy, all kinds of charms, probably. And Quailflight would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Brokenfang would need to break through..."

Fawnpaw gasped in alarm and squeaked. "So you mean the Stone's only safe just as long as Quailflight stands up to Brokenfang?"

Redpaw spoke up, "Yeah. It'll be gone by Thursday!"

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: This is quite a short chapter and it's past my bedtime, but I'll be back tomorrow! Read and review!**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly: See ya next time! And Happy early Mardi Gras!**


	14. Roberta the Mexican Griffin

**AvatarCat11: I finally got Pokémon Black and White Versions yesterday! I'm gonna work very hard to get through those two games and get far!**

**Katara: Congratulations, AvatarCat! I got Pokémon Black Version and I chose Tepig as my partner.**

**Holly: And I got Snivy from Pokémon White Version. I changed my mind about Oshawott.**

**AvatarCat11: Congratulations to the both of you! Who would like to say the disclaimer now?**

**Hagrid: (Bursts into the room again through the wall) Sorry 'bout that. Anyways, I'd like ta say yer disclaimer thingy or whatever yeh call it. Plus, this is when I get that lil' Norberta.**

**AvatarCat11: Sure thing, Hagrid.**

**Hagrid: (Sits down in a very sturdy chair) Thanks, young'un!**

**Disclaimer: He owns none, he's never owned any, and he'll never own any of this!**

**Up****dating**** date: March 7, 2011**

**Everyone in the room: Enjoy!**

**...**

_Roberta the Mexican Griffin_

Despite what the Golden Trio thought about Quailflight, the brown-&-white tom seemed to be braver than they thought. In the days that followed, he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but he didn't look as though he became insane yet.

Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, the three apprentices would press their ears to the door to check that Flopsy was still growling inside. Brokenfang was prowling around in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Nightpaw padded past Quailflight these days, he gave him a positive smile; Redpaw, meanwhile, started to scold other cats for laughing at the European Shorthair's stuttering tone.

However, Fawnpaw had more on her mind than the Elixir Stone. She had started drawing up some study schedules and color-coding all of her notes. Nightpaw and Redpaw didn't mind that much, but she started nagging them to do the same.

"Aw, Fawnpaw! The exams are only a few quarter-moons away!"

Fawnpaw just snapped, "Yeah...just ten quarter-moons! That's like a minute to Flamestone!"

"But we're not the ones who are six hundred years old; Flamestone is," Redpaw reminded her. "By the way, what're you studying for? You already know it all!"

"You kidding me? You really don't know?" Fawnpaw ranted. "We gotta pass these tests so that we can get into our second year. Plus, we gotta take second year tests to get our warrior names. I should've studied ages ago. I can't believe I didn't study enough!"

Regrettably, the mentors seemed to be thinking the same thing that Fawnpaw was thinking. They piled so much homework on the three cats that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax when Fawnpaw was reciting the twelve uses of griffin's blood or practicing tail-wand movements. Grousing and yawning, Nightpaw and Redpaw spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

"Aww, I'll never remember this," Redpaw moaned loudly one morning, throwing down his quill and looking pensively out of the library window. It was the first fine day they had had in moons. The sky was a clear, sky baby blue, and there was a feeling in the air of greenleaf coming. The nice weather seemed to be taunting them.

Nightpaw, who was looking up the word "Dittany" in One Thousand Magical Herbs, didn't look up from his notes until he heard Redpaw meow happily, "Hey, Badgerstripe! What're you doing in the library?"

The giant black cat shuffled into view, hiding something in his bag and putting something in there very quickly. He looked very out of place with his large tiger-like shape. "Eh...I was just lookin' fer stuff," he grunted in a voice that got their interest at once. Then he meowed shadily "And what're you three kids up ter? Are yeh still lookin' fer Flamestone?"

Redpaw nodded and meowed impressively, "Oh, we found who he was, all right. And we know what that dragon's guarding! Now we know about the Elixir Stone."

"Shhh!" Badgerstripe looked about swiftly to see if anyone was listening. Both Nightpaw and Fawnpaw clamped their tails over their friend's mouth to stop him from speaking further. "Don't go shoutin' stuff 'bout it! What the hell's wrong with yeh?"

"There're some things that we wanted to ask you, actually," Nightpaw meowed. "And it's about what's guarding the Stone apart from Flopsy..."

But Badgerstripe hissed again, "SHHHH! Listen...why don't ya come an' see me later? Look, I'm can't promise to tell yeh anythin', let me tell ya that. But you can't just go and start babblin' stuff about it in here! The apprentices ain't supposed ter know about it. They'll think I've told yeh..."

Nightpaw nodded and mewed, "All right, then. See ya later."

As Badgerstripe padded away with a shifty look on his face, the three cats looked around at one another with confusion. "I wonder what he was hiding in his bag?" Fawnpaw mewed pensively.

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"

"I'll go look what section he was in," Redpaw meowed, who had just enough of working. He padded off to the section and he was back just a minute later with a pile of books in his bag and poured them out onto the table.

Then he whispered, "Badgerstripe was looking up stuff about griffins! Look at these: Griffin Species of America and Canada; From Egg to Flight: A Griffin Keeper's Guide. "

Fawnpaw joined into the conversation and added, "You know that it's illegal to own a griffin in America. Why do they have those books in the library?"

Nightpaw suddenly remembered something that the gamekeeper told him the first time they met. "When he came to fetch me from the kittypets for the first time, he told me that he always wanted a griffin," he spoke up.

Redpaw just meowed, "Yeah, well, the bad thing is that it's against the Warrior Policy; that's a bit like the Code, except the wildcats obey the Code. Anyhow, griffin breeding was outlawed by the Warriors' Conference of 1709, everyone knows that! It's hard to stop kittypets from noticing us if we're keeping other strange animals in the garden. Besides, you can't tame griffins; they're just as dangerous as dragons and they're very smart. You should see the scars that Clawfoot got from the wild ones in Africa."

"But are there wild griffins in America?" Nightpaw asked his friend; the black cat was starting to feel stupider by the minute.

"Oh yeah," the American Shorthair meowed. "There's the Common Californian Golden and the Floridian Fringe Claw. The Government of Warriors has a job shutting them up, I'll tell ya that. The cats in the Government have to keep putting spells on kittypets who've spotted them, you know, to make them forget that situation."

"So what in StarClan's name is Badgerstripe up to?" Fawnpaw asked them rhetorically.

**...**

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's cabin an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Badgerstripe called "Who is it?" and he noticed the three cats standing there, but he didn't notice them at first under the Invisibility Pelt as he mewed, "Sorry, but I'm not at a good time for entertainment right now. Come back at 'nother time."

But the three cats slunk out from underneath the Pelt before he let them in, and then he shut the door quickly behind them.

It was roasting hot inside the cabin; even though it was such a warm day, there was a blistering fire in the grate. Badgerstripe made them some coffee and offered them fox sandwiches, which they refused.

"So...did yeh kids wanted to ask me somethin'?"

Nightpaw nodded and decided on telling the truth. There was no point lying to the large black cat since they knew a lot now. "We were just thinking if you could tell us what's guarding the Elixir Stone apart from Flopsy."

But Badgerstripe just frowned at the Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix. "No," he meowed. "And I'll give yeh two reasons why: The first is that I don't know meself. And the second is that yeh know too much already; because of that, I wouldn't tell yeh even if I can. That Elixir Stone's here fer a good reason: it was almost stolen outta Liverpool. I suppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Hell, I don't wanna know how yeh even know about Flopsy."

"Please, Badgerstripe. You might not tell us, but you do know. You know everything that goes on round the Forest," Fawnpaw purred in a warm pleasing voice. Badgerstripe's whiskers were twitching and they could tell that he was amused. "We were just thinking who's guarding it." The light brown tabby she-cat waved her tail around in the air as she went on. "We were just thinking who Silverstar trusted to help him, apart from you."

_Now he's putty in her skilled paws,_ Nightpaw thought amusingly to himself.

_She's really good at that,_ Redpaw gave Nightpaw the look as Badgerstripe's broad chest swelled at these last words. The two toms of the Golden Trio gazed at their female member with pride in their eyes.

"Well...I don't suppose it'll hurt ter tell yeh some o' that..." Badgerstripe gave in. "Let's see...he borrowed Flopsy from me and then some of the mentors did charms. They are Sproutflower, Shortlegs, Thistleheart..." He flicked his tail several times "...Quailflight, and Silverstar himself. Wait, I forgot someone. Oh yeah, the last one is Brokenfang."

The three cats gasped at him with pure surprise in their voices; wasn't the dark brown tabby tom trying to STEAL the Stone, not protect it? As if he read their minds, the gamekeeper added, "Are you kids still goin' on 'bout that? Listen, Brokenfang is tryin' to _protect_ the Stone, not steal it."

But Nightpaw knew that Redpaw and Fawnpaw were thinking the same as he was. If Brokenfang was protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other mentors had guarded it. He probably knew everything...except Quailflight's spell and how to get past the three-headed dragon.

"So you're the only one who knows how to get past Flopsy?" Nightpaw asked his giant friend anxiously. "And you won't tell anyone? Not even one of the mentors?"

"Nope. Not another cat knows except me and Silverstar," the big black cat replied proudly.

Nightpaw gave a sigh and turned around to face his friends, meowing, "Well, that's something." Then, feeling hot under his fur, he turned back to Badgerstripe. "Hey, can we open the window? I'm roasting."

Badgerstripe looked away as he meowed, "Sorry, Nightpaw. I can't." But the black cat noticed the gamekeeper glance at the roaring fire, so Nightpaw looked at it, too.

"Badgerstripe? What's that?"

But he already knew what it was because, almost in the very pit of the fire and right underneath the kettle, was a large white egg. Nightpaw wondered if it was an ostrich egg, but that would mean that the ostrich chick inside would die from the heat.

"Oh," Badgerstripe began, twitching his tail tensely. "That's...um..."

Redpaw looked over the fire to get a closer look at the egg and gasped with surprise. "Great StarClan, Badgerstripe! Where'd you get this? It must've cost you a fortune."

Badgerstripe bent low to fix the egg around as he told them how. "It was around last night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks, and then I got into a game of poker with a stranger. I think that he was happy ter get rid of it."

"But when it hatches, what're you gonna do with it?" Fawnpaw asked him with worry in her mew.

"Well, I've been doin' some readin'," Badgerstripe told him, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "I got this outta the library: Griffin Breeding for Delight and Profit. It's a bit outta date, of course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg right near the fire; their mothers keep 'em warm, you know? And when it hatches, feed it a bucket of wine mixed with chicken blood every half hour. Look...there's different eggs; plus, this here is a Mexican Wolf's Tail. They're rare, they are."

He looked very pleased with himself, but Fawnpaw looked very disappointed in him. "You do realize that you live in a wooden cabin?" she mewed, but the tiger-sized cat wasn't listening to her; instead, he was humming cheerfully as he rolled the egg around near the fire.

**...**

Now the Golden Trio had something else to worry about: what might happen to Badgerstripe if another cat found out he was hiding an illegal griffin in his hut. If he had a Sky Bison for a pet, that would be even worse, but this was bad enough.

"Gee, I wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Redpaw gave a sigh every night, for they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting. Fawnpaw had now started making study schedules for the two toms of the pack too. It was driving them crazy.

Then, one time at breakfast, Katara had just brought Nightpaw another note from Badgerstripe. He had written only two short yet understanding words: _It's hatchin'._

Redpaw just wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the cabin, but Fawnpaw wouldn't let him go immediately. "Aww, come on, Fawnpaw! How many times in our lives are we going to see a hatching griffin?"

"Hmmm, that would be interesting to watch a griffin hatching," Fawnpaw retorted sarcastically. "Except there's one little problem: We. Have. Lessons. If we roam around, we're gonna get in trouble. But if Badgerstripe gets found out, he's gonna get in a whole mountain of trouble."

But Nightpaw hissed at them to be quiet as he pointed his tail at Icepaw; the black-&-silver tabby tom was just a few foxlengths away from them. But Nightpaw didn't like the sneering look on his face as he seemed to be listening. He was afraid that Icepaw was listening to all of it.

Redpaw and Fawnpaw were arguing about whether to go or not to Badgerstripe's cabin to see the griffin hatch. Finally, in the end, the light brown tabby she-cat agreed to run down to the cabin with the toms during morning break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lessons, the Golden Trio dropped their supplies at once and sprinted through the grounds to the edge of the Forbidden Swamp. Badgerstripe greeted them, looking very flushed and thrilled.

"It's gettin' out!" He ushered them inside.

The large white egg was lying on the table and there were already deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath.

All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby griffin flopped onto the table and stared up at the cats. It was quite a cute little chick; Nightpaw thought that it looked like a small gray-&-white baby eagle with a lion's rear part of the body. Its fluffy wings were small compared to its pudgy body and it had a short beak with narrow nostrils complete with closed eyes.

It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout, and then it made a cute little cooing sound. Badgerstripe, whose pelt got caught by the sparks, put it out with some water in a vase before turning back to the hatchling.

"Aww. Ain't she beautiful?" Badgerstripe murmured as he reached out a paw to pat the baby's head. It snapped at his front toes, clicking its beak as a warning. "Bless her, look! She knows her daddy!"

Fawnpaw took the chance to speak up. "Hey, Badgerstripe? How fast do Mexican Wolf's Tails grow?"

Badgerstripe was just on the edge to answer that question when his dark amber eyes suddenly narrowed with astonishment; he leapt down from the table and ran right to the window.

"What's the matter?"

"Someone was lookin' right through the gap in the curtains. I think it's a cat. He's runnin' back up ter the school castle."

Nightpaw bolted to the door and looked out, his claws unsheathing in case of an emergency. But even if he could see him at a distance, there was no mistaking the black-&-silver tabby pelt glowing bright silver in the sunlight. Icepaw had finally seen the griffin and the secret was no longer safe.

**...**

Something about the evil sneer lurking on Icepaw's face during the next quarter-moon made Nightpaw, Redpaw, and Fawnpaw very panicky for their friend. So they spent most of their free time to go on over to Badgerstripe's unlit hot cabin, trying to reason with him.

"Just let her go," Nightpaw urged the gamekeeper. "Set her free."

"But I can't," Badgerstripe protested, looking anxious himself. "She's too little. She'll die if I do that."

The four cats looked over at the baby griffin. She had grown two times her size in just a quarter-moon and smoke kept leaking out of her thin nostrils. Meanwhile, Badgerstripe hadn't been able to do his gamekeeping duties a lot because the griffin was keeping him so busy. There were now empty wine bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.

Badgerstripe looked over at the baby griffin with happy eyes. "I know what her name's gonna be. It's Roberta. She really knows me now, watch." He crouched low to the ground and covered his eyes with his paws as he called out, "Roberta! Roberta! Where's Daddy? Where is the baby?"

Redpaw rolled his blue eyes and muttered lowly to Nightpaw, "He's out of his mind!"

Nightpaw nodded to his ginger-furred friend and spoke up loudly, "Badgerstripe, if you keep this up for a half moon, Roberta's going to be as big as a bull elephant. Icepaw could be going right over to Silverstar at any moment."

Badgerstripe shuffled his front paws. "I...I know I can't keep her forever, but I can't just dump her. I just can't."

Suddenly getting an idea in his head, Nightpaw turned to look at Redpaw. "Clawfoot."

"Aww, you're losing your mind too!" Redpaw moaned as he stepped back. "It's me. Redpaw!"

"No! I meant your brother Clawfoot," Nightpaw quickly corrected him. "You know how he's in Africa studying bizarre animals, right? Well, we can send Roberta over to him and he'll take care of her until she can be released into the wild! And we can send Katara over to him to let him know!"

The American Shorthair's blue eyes widened with excitement as he exclaimed, "You're a genius! What do you say, Badgerstripe?"

Finally, in the end, Badgerstripe agreed to send Katara over to Clawfoot and ask him.

**...**

The following quarter-moon dragged by as slowly as a crocodile in the water. On Wednesday night, Fawnpaw and Nightpaw were alone in the common room long after the other cats went to sleep. The clock on the wall had just chimed moonhigh when the portrait hole burst open a little loudly.

Redpaw was limping out of nowhere as he pulled off Nightpaw's Invisibility Pelt. He had been down at Badgerstripe's cabin, helping him feed Roberta, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

"She bit me!" he snarled, showing them his right front paw, which was wrapped in a bleeding tissue. "I might not hold a quill for a quarter-moon! That griffin's the nastiest animal I've ever met! But the way Badgerstripe goes on about it, you'd think she was a furry little puppy. When she bit me, he scolded me for frightening her. And when I left, he was singing her a lullaby."

There was a tap on the dark window and Nightpaw knew who that was. "Katara!" she purred as he hurried to let his owl in. "She'll have Clawfoot's response!"

The Golden Trio put their heads together to read the note.

_Dear Redpaw,_

_How are you doing in your first year? And thanks for the letter. I'll be happy to take the Mexican Wolf's Tail, but it won't be easy getting her here. I think that the best thing to do is to send her over with my friends who are coming to visit me next quarter-moon. The bad thing is that they can't be seen carrying an illegal animal._

_Could you get the griffin up the tallest tower at moonhigh on Saturday? They'll meet you there and take her while it's still dark. Send me an answer as soon as possible._

_Love,_ _Clawfoot_

They looked at one another.

"We've got the Invisibility Pelt with us," Nightpaw told his friends. "It won't be that difficult. I think the Pelt's big enough to cover two of us and Roberta."

It was a mark of how bad the last quarter-moon had been that the other two agreed with him. They had to do anything to get rid of Roberta...and Icepaw.

**...**

There was a drawback at this plan, however. By the next morning, Redpaw's bitten paw swelled to twice its usual size. Nightpaw knew that Redpaw didn't know whether it was safe to go to Poppyleaf; would she recognize a griffin bite? By sunhigh, though, he had no choice. The wound had turned a nasty shade of very dark red. It looked as if Roberta was a poisonous griffin, which was quite rare.

Nightpaw and Redpaw rushed up to the medicine cat area at the end of the day to find Redpaw in a terrible condition in the nest.

"It's not just my paw," he rasped, "It feels like it's about to fall off. Icepaw just told Poppyleaf that he wanted to borrow a book so that he could come and laugh at me. He was going to tell her what really bit me. I told her that it was a horse, but I don't think she believes me. Oh, I shouldn't have beaten him up at the AirBall match; that's why he's doing this."

The two other members of the Golden Trio tried to calm Redpaw down.

"It'll be over at moonhigh on Saturday," Fawnpaw murmured to him.

But this didn't calm Redpaw down at all. Quite the opposite way they hoped for him to react, he sat quickly upright and began to babble like a mentally challenged cat.

He rasped hoarsely, "Moonhigh on Saturday! Oh no...I've just remembered! Clawfoot's letter was in that book that Icepaw took! He'll know that we're getting rid of Roberta!"

Nightpaw and Fawnpaw were ready to tell him something else, but they didn't get a chance to answer; Poppyleaf had just came over at that moment and made them leave, saying the Redpaw needed his good night's sleep.

**...**

"We can't go and change the plan right now," Fawnpaw told Fawnpaw as the two cats ran down to the cabin. "We can't send another owl to Clawfoot just in time, and this might be our last and only chance to get rid of Roberta. We just need to get this over with. And we got the Invisibility Pelt with us and Icepaw doesn't know about that."

They found Marmaduke the Great Dane sitting outside with a bandaged tail when they went to tell Hagrid. While Marmaduke whimpered when he saw Roberta gaze at him with amber eyes, Badgerstripe opened a window to talk to them.

The giant black tomcat had his white stripes singed with soot and ashes and he was puffing hard. "I'm sorry, you two, but I can't let you in. Roberta's just at a tricky stage; nothin' I can't deal with."

When they told him about Clawfoot's letter, his eyes filled with tears, even though it might be because of Roberta closing her sharp beak onto his tail. "Argh! It's all right, she only got my tail," he purred to the shocked apprentices. "She's just playin'; she's only a baby, after all."

The baby started flapping her new wings, making the plants inside the cabin blow back and forth in the strong gale. After a hasty good-bye, Nightpaw and Fawnpaw quietly padded back to the castle, feeling that Saturday couldn't come quickly enough.

**...**

They would have felt sorry for Badgerstripe when the time came for him to say farewell to the baby griffin. Well, they would have felt sorry for him if they weren't so worried about what they had to do.

It was a very shady and cloudy night, and they were sort of late arriving at Badgerstripe's cabin because they had had to wait for the Joker to get out of their way in the entrance hall, where he had been bouncing a tennis ball against the wall. Badgerstripe had just had Roberta packed and ready in a large crate.

"She's got a lot of rats and some wine fer the journey," Badgerstripe rasped in a quiet voice. "And I've packed her stuffed animal in case she gets lonely."

But from inside the crate came ripping noises that made Nightpaw think that the stuffed animal was having its head ripped off.

"Bye-bye, Roberta!" Badgerstripe bawled as Nightpaw and Fawnpaw covered the crate with the Invisibility Pelt and stepped under it themselves. "Daddy won't ever forget you! Never ever!"

They never knew how they managed to get the crate back up to the castle. Moonhigh was just ticking nearer as they heaved Roberta up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another...even one of Nightpaw's safe shortcuts didn't make the work easier for the both of them.

"We're nearly there!" Nightpaw gasped as they reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower.

Then sudden movements ahead of them made them almost drop the crate. Forgetting that they were already invisible, they shrank into the dark shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two cats grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared and Thistleheart, with a torn ear and a very angry look on her face, just pinned Icepaw, who was uninjured, to the ground.

"How dare you attack a mentor out of bed like this!" she was spitting with fury at the British Shorthair. "And twenty points from ViperClan! Wandering around at moonhigh..."

"But you don't understand! Potter's got an illegal animal!"

Thistleheart just growled, "How dare you tell such lies, Mr. Malfoy! Now let's go!" she snarled, nudging him up and pushing him toward the other way. "We'll go speak to Brokenfang about this!"

The vertical spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. When they stepped out into the chilly night air, they managed to throw off the Pelt, glad to breathe properly again after all of that hiding. Fawnpaw's fur was bristling and Nightpaw saw that she was doing a sort of dance.

"Icepaw got into trouble! It makes me wanna sing!"

"Please don't."

Still laughing about Icepaw in trouble, they waited while Roberta continued thrashing about in her crate. About ten minutes later, four cats with wings attached to their backs came swooping down out of the darkness.

Clawfoot's friends were an optimistic pack of cats since they were more than pleased to show Nightpaw and Fawnpaw the harness they had rigged up, so they could suspend Roberta between them. They all helped buckle the griffin safely into it and then Nightpaw and Fawnpaw dipped their heads to the others and thanked them for all that they had done.

At last, Roberta was gone. Going...going...gone.

They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their empty jaws, now that Roberta didn't weigh them down. They were now happy because of these two things: No more griffin and Icepaw being scolded. What could spoil their happiness?

The answer to that was waiting for them at the foot of the stairs. As they padded into the dark and shadowy passageway, Oscar's skull-like face loomed suddenly out of the shadows. "Oh dear," he whispered nastily with a sneer on his face. "We _are_ in trouble, aren't we?"

They had left the Invisibility Pelt back on top of the tower. They were in deep trouble now.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: Oh crap! Those two are in trouble now! Hmmm...I wonder what's going to happen next. Even though this is the cat version of Harry Potter, I know what happens in the human version.**

**Katara: Great. They got out of trouble and they're in even bigger trouble.**

**Holly: I agree, but the world's sometimes not fair. Anyways, we're just three chapters away from finishing this until we go on to Nightfang and the Cavern of Secrets! So can I say the review thing for now?**

**Katara: Can she, AvatarCat?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure!**

**Holly: Thanks! (To the readers) Please read and review! Anyone that does will get a basket of all the moon pie flavors they want.**

**Homer Simpson: (Comes in) Mmm...moon pies... (Begins to drool and eats some moon pies while AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly laugh at this antic)**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly: See ya next time!**

**Homer: And get your own moon pies!**


	15. The Forbidden Swamp

**AvatarCat11: Mardi Gras is finally over and school has begun once again. Thank God that it was only for two days!**

**Katara: (While feeding Tenzin) Plus, there's only two more chapters after this story until the sequel comes out! Did you have fun at the parade?**

**AvatarCat11: (Turns around to smile at her) Yeah...if you count walking around until your feet get sleepy and your own mom acting crazy when she's drunk.**

**(All three of them laugh until Holly speaks up)**

**Holly: Also, you beat Pokémon White in four days! How was the battle between Reshiram and Zekrom?**

**AvatarCat11: It was awesome! And my Zekrom won!**

**Katara: Congratulations! I'm come over to give you a hug, but I'm a little busy feeding Tenzin.**

**AvatarCat11: (Smiles at her) No problem. I understand.**

**Holly: Congratulations, AvatarCat! (Goes over to him and hugs him) Are you gonna say the disclaimer?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter or Warrior Cats, I'd make an anime series of this! Although it may not be such a bad idea...**

**Holly: But I do know that they're not gonna make one.**

**Updating Date: March 12, 2011**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly: Enjoy!**

**...**

_The Forbidden Swamp_

Things couldn't be worse.

Oscar took them over to Thistleheart's study office on the first floor, where the two cats sat down and waited without saying a word. Fawnpaw was trembling and she was making mewling sounds while excuses and wild cover-up stories ran around in Nightpaw's brain, worse than the last. In front of them, sneering with triumph, was Icepaw.

The black tom couldn't see how they were going to get out of trouble this time; they were now cornered like mice. How could they be so stupid to forget the Pelt? There was no explanation that Thistleheart would accept for them being out of their nests and creeping around the school at moonhigh, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was off limits at all times for cats except for classes.

Add Roberta and the Invisibility Pelt, and they might be packing soon. Nightpaw thought things couldn't go wrong more than this, but he was wrong. Dead wrong. When the deputy of the Forest appeared before them, she was leading Toadpaw into the room.

"Nightpaw! Fawnpaw!" he burst out the moment he saw the other two. "I tried to find you and warn you! I heard Icepaw saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a grif..."

Nightpaw quickly shook his head violently to shut the brown tabby tom up and hissed at him to shut up, but Thistleheart had seen and heard him at the same time. She looked more able to lash out harshly than Roberta as she towered over the three apprentices.

"I cannot believe it. All of you," she hissed with cold fury in her voice. "Oscar told me you were in the astronomy tower and it's past moonhigh. It's past your bedtime! _Explain yourselves._"

It was the first time Fawnpaw had failed to answer a mentor's question. Instead of answering her question, she just stared down at her paws and sat as still as a statue. Nightpaw, for now, couldn't come up with a good excuse.

"I think I have a good idea of what's been going on," Thistleheart went on coldly when no one answered. "It doesn't take a genius to solve it. You fed Malfoy some fish-and-mouse tale about a griffin, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him and he's with me now in this room; he was the one who told me about it. Do you think it's funny that Longbottom heard the story and believed it, too?"

_Of course not! _Nightpaw caught Toadpaw's sad amber eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn't true; the Exotic Shorthair was looking stunned and upset at this. Poor awkward Toadpaw... Nightpaw knew what it might have cost him to try and find them in the dark and try to warn them. But there was nothing he could say.

Thistleheart sprang up onto her desk and snapped fiercely, "I am disgusted with you! Four cats out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing! I thought you had more sense than this, Miss Granger. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought LionClan meant more to you than this. All four of you will receive detention...yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom..."

"Excuse me."

Icepaw had stood up; even though he was looking triumphant and sneering a moment ago, he now looked confused, but mildly so. "Did you say the FOUR of us will get detention?"

"I did say that. Even though you did the right thing, you were also out of your nest. You will be joining your classmates in detention/" She turned back around to the LionClan cats and growled, "Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, gives you the right to wander around at night, mainly around these days. It's dangerous for young cats like you! And fifty points will be taken from LionClan."

"FIFTY?" Nightpaw gasped with horror; they were going to lose the lead, the lead that got them through the AirBall match.

Thistleheart turned her furious green eyes to him, cleared her throat, and added sharply, "Each."

"Thistleheart...please..."

"But you can't!"

But Thistleheart flicked her tail furiously at the LionClan cats and hissed, "Don't tell me how to do my job in the Forest. Now get to your nests, all of you. I have never been more ashamed of cats in my own Clan."

**...**

A hundred and fifty points lost. That put LionClan right in last place. In one night, they had just ruined any chance that LionClan had ever had for the Clan trophy. Nightpaw felt as if his belly just shriveled up and died inside of him. How could they ever make up for this mess now?

Nightpaw couldn't sleep at all and he didn't even sleep all night. He could hear poor Toadpaw whimpering into his pillow for what seemed like hours. The Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix could not think of anything to say to console him and tell him it wasn't his fault at all. He knew that Toadpaw, like himself, was dreading for dawn to come.

What would happen when LionClan found out what they did?

**...**

At first, LionClan cats passing the hourglasses recording the Clan points the next day thought there was a mistake. Why did they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer than the days gone by? And then the story started to spread: Nightpaw Potter, the famous Nightpaw Potter they all trusted and admired and their hero of two AirBall matches, had lost them all those points.

Not to mention a couple of other stupid first-year kits.

Now, from being one of the most popular and admired cats at the school, Nightpaw had suddenly become the most hated cat. Even RavenClan and BadgerClan cats turned against him, because they were waiting to see LionClan lose the Clan trophy; thanks to Nightpaw, all that hope was lost. Everywhere he went, cats bared their teeth angrily at him and didn't lower their voices while they insulted him.

But ViperClan cats, on the other paw, sneered as he passed them, "Thanks Potter! We owe you one!"

Only Redpaw stood by him; he was there to retort fiercely at the other cats if they insulted his friend. "Nightpaw, don't worry! They'll all forget this in a quarter-moon or so! Both Berrytail and Cherrynose lost points before and everyone still likes them!"

"But did they lose a hundred and fifty in one night?" Nightpaw mewled sadly.

"Um...no."

It was too late to repair the damage that was done done, but Nightpaw promised he would never stick his muzzle into things that didn't concern him anymore. He had had it with sneaking around and spying. He felt so ashamed of himself that he went over to Treebranch and offered to resign from the AirBall team.

"Resign?" the light brown tabby tom boomed angrily. "Are you fucking insane? What good will resigning do? How will we get any points back if we can't win at AirBall?"

But even AirBall had lost its fun. The rest of the AirBall team wouldn't even talk to Nightpaw during practice, and if they did speak about him, they just called him "the Seeker." The black cat was quite afraid Berrytail and Cherrynose would turn against him, but their faces were hard to read. He thought they were on the border between blaming him and supporting him.

Fawnpaw and Toadpaw were suffering, too. They weren't hounded as much as Nightpaw, for they weren't as famous as he was; despite that, no one would speak to them either. Fawnpaw had stopped drawing attention to herself in class, keeping her head down and working in silence. As for Redpaw, he had recovered from his griffin bite, but he also lost some respect from the other cats for defending a now-infamous cat.

Nightpaw was just happy that the examinations weren't far away. All the studying he had to do kept his mind off his grief. The Golden Trio kept to themselves and away from the other cats, working late into the night. They had been trying hard to remember the ingredients in complex potions, learn Charms and spells by heart, learn the dates of wild finds and baboon revolts...

Then, a quarter-moon before the examinations were about to begin, Nightpaw's new promise to not meddle in anything was put to a sudden test.

**...**

Walking back from the library on his own one sunhigh, he heard somebody whining from a classroom up ahead. As he drew closer, he heard Quailflight's trembling voice. "No...no... Not again, please..."

It sounded as if another cat was threatening him. Nightpaw moved closer to hear the European Shorthair weep "All right...all right..."

In a second, Quailflight came hurrying out of the classroom, leveling his turban. He was pale-looking and looked as though he was about to sob. He strode out of sight; Nightpaw was sure that the brown-&-white tom didn't even notice him. He waited until Quailflight's pawsteps had disappeared, and then he peered into the classroom.

It was empty, but there was a door standing somewhat open at the other end. Nightpaw padded forward and he was just halfway there before he remembered what he had promised to StarClan about not interfering.

_No way. Not gonna mess up again._

Even so, he would have gambled twelve Elixir Stones that Brokenfang had just left the room. From what Nightpaw had just heard, the dark brown tabby tom would be padding around with a new leap in his step. Quailflight seemed to have admitted defeat at last.

So Nightpaw padded out of the room and went back to the library, where Fawnpaw was testing Redpaw on Astronomy. The leader of the Golden Trio sat down next to them at the table and told them what he had just heard.

"So Brokenfang did it!" Redpaw gasped. "If Quailflight's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force enchantment..."

Fawnpaw spoke up, "But there's still Flopsy, you know."

Redpaw, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them meowed, "Maybe Brokenfang found out how to get past her without even having to ask Badgerstripe. I bet that there's a book somewhere around here telling you how to get past a huge three-headed silvery dragon. So what do we do, Nightpaw?"

The glow of adventure was kindling again in the ginger tom's blue eyes, but Fawnpaw answered before Nightpaw could. "Do I have to say this again? Just go to Silverstar; we should've done that some time ago. If we try anything ourselves, we'll be exiled for sure."

"But what could we tell him what he doesn't know?" Nightpaw argued. "Quailflight's too afraid to back us up. Brokenfang has to say he doesn't know how the mammoth got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor. Who do you think they'll believe? Him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him. Silverstar will just think we made it up to get him fired."

He got up and began pacing around, continuing, "And Oscar won't help us if his life depended on it since he's too friendly with Brokenfang. And the more cats exiled, the better, he'll think. Don't forget that we're not to know about the Stone or Flopsy. That'll take a lot of explaining to do."

Fawnpaw seemed to be convinced, but Redpaw wasn't. "If we just poke around..."

"No way," Nightpaw muttered forcefully. "I'm sick of poking around." He padded back to the table, pulled a map of Jupiter toward him, and started to learn the names of its moons.

**...**

The following morning, notes were delivered to Nightpaw, Fawnpaw, and Toadpaw right at the breakfast table. They were all the same:

_Your detention will take place at eleven p.m. tonight._

_Meet Oscar in the entrance hall._

_Thistleheart McGonagall_

Nightpaw forgot that they still had detentions to do in the disturbance over the points that they lost. He half expected Fawnpaw to grumble that this would be a whole night of lost studying, but she didn't say a word. Like Nightpaw, she felt that they got what they deserved.

**...**

At eleven p.m. that night, they said good-bye to Redpaw in the common room and padded down to the entrance hall with Toadpaw. Oscar was already waiting for them...and so was Icepaw. And Nightpaw also forgot that the black-&-silver tabby British Shorthair got a detention too.

"Follow me," Oscar commanded, lighting a lamp and leading them outside.

As they walked, he leered at them and meowed, "I bet you'll think twice about breaking the rules again, eh? Oh yes, hard work and pain are the best mentors, if you ask me. It's a pity that they let the old penalties die out. Hang you by your tail from the ceiling for a few days, that's one of 'em. I've still got the chains in my office; I keep 'em well-oiled just in case. God, I miss the shouting," he sighed. Loudly, he snapped, "Right, off we go! And don't think of running off, now! It'll be worse for you if you do."

They prowled off across the dark grounds in silence. Toadpaw kept whimpering and Nightpaw wondered what their punishment was going to be. It must be something really horrifying, or Oscar wouldn't sound so delighted and be smiling.

The full moon was bright in the sky, but clouds scudding across it had kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, Nightpaw could see the lighted windows of Badgerstripe's small cabin. Then they heard a distant shout: "That you, Oscar? Hurry up! I wanna get started as soon as possible."

Nightpaw's heart rose with joy; if they were going to be working with Badgerstripe, detention would maybe be fun. But his relief must have showed in his face, because Oscar meowed, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that lout? Well, think again, boy! It's into the swamp you'll go, and I'll be damned if you come out in one piece."

At this, Toadpaw let out a little whimper and Icepaw stopped dead in his tracks.

"The swamp?" he repeated, and Nightpaw was pleased to notice that he didn't sound as cold as usual. "We can't go in there at night! I've heard there are all sorts of bad things in there..." A low howl echoed across the island as he went on, "...werewolves!"

Toadpaw just squeaked with terror and pressed his pelt against Nightpaw's thicker fur. Oscar, however, leered at the four apprentices and growled, "Well, you should've thought of that before you got yourselves into trouble, eh? Well, that's your problem, not mine!"

They had finally arrived at the cabin, where Badgerstripe came striding toward them out of the dark with Marmaduke following him and looking silent. The big black cat was carrying a large crossbow in his jaws and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder. He had a look of mild grief on his face.

Then he began meowing, "Roberta's gone. I know she's gonna be taken good care of, but I'm still worryin' 'bout her! What if she doesn't like Africa? Or what if the other griffins are mean to her? She's just a baby, after all!"

"Oh, pull yourself together, man!" Oscar snapped.

"Yeah, I should just suck it up," Badgerstripe replied, wiping his eyes with one of his large heavy forepaws. "I've been waitin' fer you guys for half an hour already! Are you all right, Nightpaw and Fawnpaw?"

Oscar just glared at him. "If I were you, Hagrid, I wouldn't be too friendly with these critters. They're here to be punished, after all."

Badgerstripe frowned at the yellow-eyed dark brown tom. "That's why yer late, huh? You been lecturin' them, eh? It's not yer place ter do that. Yeh've done yer part and I'll take over from here."

"I'll be back at dawn," Oscar meowed as he turned away from them. "...for what's left of them. Nighty-night," he added nastily over his shoulder, and he turned and started to pad back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Icepaw now turned to Badgerstripe with wide pale gray eyes. "I won't go into that swamp!" he squealed, and Nightpaw was glad to hear the note of panic in the British Shorthair's voice.

"Well, yeh have to if yeh wanna stay here at the Forest," Badgerstripe told him shortly but fiercely. "Yeh've broken the Warrior Code and you have to make it up by doing something right."

"But this is servant stuff!" Icepaw snapped. "It's not for apprentices to do! I thought that we would be copying lines or something! If my father knew I was doing this..."

"...then he'll tell yer that's how it's done at the Forest," Badgerstripe retorted crossly; Nightpaw could tell that losing Roberta added fuels to his anger and grief. "Copyin' lines! What good will that do fer anyone? You'll be doing somethin' useful or you can just leave. If yeh think that yer papa would want you exiled, then get your ass back to the castle and pack. Go on!"

But Icepaw didn't move. Instead, he glared at the gamekeeper angrily, but then the black-&-silver tabby dropped his gaze.

Badgerstripe seemed to be satisfied with that answer because he meowed, "Right then, let's get back to business. Now, listen carefully 'cause what we're fixin' to do tonight is gonna be very dangerous, and I don't want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here fer a moment."

He led them to the very edge of the swamp while the four cats shivered with fright. Holding his lamp up high in his jaws, he pointed down a narrow snaky earth pathway that disappeared into the thick black pine trees. A light breeze lifted their neck fur as they looked into the swamp, and a loud owl hoot made them bristle with fear.

"Look over there," Badgerstripe instructed them. "See that stuff shinin' on the ground? The silvery stuff right there?" He took a small pawful and sniffed at it before wiping his paw on the ground. "That there's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there that's hurt badly by some weird somethin'. This is the second time in a quarter-moon and I found one dead just last Wednesday. We gotta find the poor thing; we might even have ter put it out of its misery."

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Icepaw squeaked, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

Badgerstripe turned to face him. "Don't worry, kid. There's nothin' that lives in the swamp that'll hurt yeh if yer with either me or Marmaduke. And keep to this path at all times. Okay, we're gonna split into two parties and follow the trail in different directions. There's gonna blood all over the place and it might've bin staggerin' around since last moonhigh at least."

Icepaw looked around at the Great Dane's long teeth bared with fright. "I want to tag along with Marmaduke."

"Okay. But I'm warnin' yeh; he's a bloody coward," Badgerstripe warned him. "Team One, who're Nightpaw, Fawnpaw, and I, will go one way. Team Two, who're Icepaw, Toadpaw, and Duke, go the other way. Now, if any of us finds that unicorn, we'll send up red sparks. Get yer tail-wands out and practice now for a bit, and if anyone gets into trouble, send up red sparks an' we'll all find yeh. So be careful. Let's move out."

The forest was black and silent and frightening as the two teams of cats and dog made their way warily through the swamp; Nightpaw thought that he saw a pair of dark eyes leering at the cats from the dark boggy water. A little way into it, they reached a fork in the earth path, and soon enough, Nightpaw's team took the left path while Icepaw's team took the right. While the two groups had went their separate paths for a bit, things got a little scarier.

Nightpaw, Fawnpaw, and Badgerstripe padded on their path in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then, a glimmer of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. Nightpaw couldn't help but see that Badgerstripe looked very vexed.

"Is a werewolf killing the unicorns?" the smaller black cat asked him.

"Nah, they're not fast enough," Badgerstripe told him, shaking his head. "It's not that simple to catch a unicorn; they're powerful magical creatures. I never knew in my life that one could be hurt, though."

They padded carefully past a mossy tree stump. Nightpaw could hear running water; there must be a stream somewhere close by. A sudden snap told him that an alligator had probably taken an elk as its victim. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path.

"You okay, Fawnpaw?" Badgerstripe whispered, since the light brown tabby Angora mix was shivering and making mewling sounds. "Don't worry. It can't have gone far if it's this badly hurt, and then we'll be able ter...GET BEHIND THAT TREE!"

Easily, the giant tiger-sized cat grabbed the apprentices by their scruffs and hoisted them off the pathway behind a towering oak. He pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it in his jaws and ready to fire. The three of them listened; something seemed to be crunching over dead leaves nearby. It sounded like pawsteps trailing along the ground. Badgerstripe was busy squinting up the shadowy path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away.

"I knew it," he murmured. "There's somethin' in here that shouldn't be in here."

"Is it a werewolf?" Nightpaw suggested.

Badgerstripe shook his head grimly. "Nah. That wasn't no werewolf and it wasn't no unicorn, neither. Okay, now follow me, but careful now."

They slunk along more slowly, ears straining forward for the faintest noise. All of a sudden, in a clearing ahead, something absolutely moved. "Who's there?" Badgerstripe called out loudly to the something. "Show yerself! I'm armed!"

And into the clearing came...weren't horses supposed to be tame animals? This was a horse, all right, but its reddish mane was covered in wild flowers and its chestnut coat was gleaming in the moonlight. Nightpaw and Fawnpaw gasped at the animal that they thought all their lives was a tamed creature.

"Oh," Badgerstripe sighed with relief. "It's just you, Ajax! How've you been?" He dipped his head forward to the wild stallion, who dipped his head back toward him in the same way the cats show respect.

"Good evening, Badgerstripe," Ajax whinnied in a low mournful voice. "Were you really going to shoot me?"

Badgerstripe shuffled his forepaws and muttered, "Sorry 'bout that, but yeh can't be too careful. There's somethin' bad loose in this here swamp. Anyways, this is Nightpaw Potter and Fawnpaw Granger; they're first-year apprentices from the castle. Yeh two, this is Ajax; he's a wild horse."

"Uh...we know now," Fawnpaw mewed faintly.

The wild horse gazed down at them with deep brown eyes as he whinnied, "Good evening, young felines. I hear that you are apprentices from the castle. Do you learn much from there?"

Nightpaw and Fawnpaw gazed at one another at a loss for words.

Finally, Fawnpaw replied, "Um...we know some things."

"Hmmm...some things, eh? Well, that's something." Ajax sighed heavily and he flung back his great sleek head to stare up at the night sky. "Mars is bright tonight."

"Yep," Badgerstripe meowed in reply, glancing up quickly too. "Look, I'm happy that we've run into ya, Ajax, 'cause there's a unicorn that's been badly hurt. Have you seen anythin'?"

Ajax didn't answer immediately. The chestnut-coated wild horse stared unblinkingly upward to the sky, and then he sighed again. "It is always the innocent that are the first victims," he said. "So it has been for ages past, so it is now."

"Yep," Badgerstripe meowed again. "But have ya seen anythin', Ajax? Anythin' _strange_?"

"Mars is bright tonight," Ajax repeated while Badgerstripe watched him with annoyance. "In fact, it is oddly bright."

The gamekeeper replied a little edgy, "I know that, but I was meanin' anythin' strange a bit nearer home. So haven't yeh noticed anythin' strange?"

Yet again, the chestnut-coated wild horse took a while to answer. At long last, he whinnied, "The swamp hides many secrets."

Movements in the trees behind Ajax made Badgerstripe raise his bow again and unsheathe his claws this time, but it was only a second wild horse, black-bodied and much wilder-looking than Ajax.

"Greetings, Basil," Badgerstripe meowed. "You all right?"

The black wild horse nodded to him and returned the greeting. "Good evening, Badgerstripe. I hope you are well?"

The gamekeeper nodded. "Yep, I'm well enough. Look, I've just bin askin' Ajax here a question and I'd like to ask ya the same thing. Have you seen anythin' strange in here lately? There's a unicorn that's been badly injured. Do yeh know anythin' about it?"

Basil just trotted over to stand next to his fellow wild horse. He looked skyward and repeated the speech from earlier. "Mars is bright tonight," he said simply.

"We heard that the third time tonight," Badgerstripe growled grouchily. "Fine. But if either of you do see anythin', will ya let me know? We better be off, then."

Nightpaw and Fawnpaw followed him out of the clearing, staring over their shoulders at Ajax and Basil, who were still observing the skies, until the trees blocked their view. Badgerstripe told the other two impatiently, "NEVER try and get a straight answer out of a horse. They're nothin' but mouse-brained stargazers. They're not interested in anythin' closer than the moon."

"Are there many of the horses in here?" Fawnpaw asked.

"Yeah, there's a small herd in the swamp. They keep to themselves frequently, but they're good enough about turnin' up if I ever wanted a word with 'em. They're deep, horses. They know a lot of things. They just don't let on much."

Nightpaw took the chance to meow, "Was that a horse we heard back there?"

Badgerstripe retorted, "Did that sound like hooves back there? Nope! If you ask me, that must be the somethin' that's been killin' off the unicorns. But I ain't never heard of this before."

As soon as he heard that, Nightpaw was now very relieved to see that Badgerstripe was still keeping his bow and arrows in his jaws. While they were padding around the path and searching for more clues, Fawnpaw suddenly let out a yowl and pointed her muzzle to the sky.

"Badgerstripe, look! There's some red sparks in the sky! They could be in trouble!"

"You kids stay here!" Badgerstripe told them. "Just stay near or on the path! I'll come back for ya!" At that, he turned around and bounded down the path, his large paws drumming the muddy ground.

The two younger cats could hear the gamekeeper crashing his way through the undergrowth and they gave each other a scared look, unable to speak. But they were able to climb up an oak tree and stay at the lowest branch so that even a fierce animal couldn't reach them. They tried to listen for more pawsteps, but they faded away until there were crickets chirping and owls screeching in the night. When they remembered the scary stories they were told when they were kits, things got a lot spookier.

Fawnpaw was finally able to speak to Nightpaw. "Do you think they're hurt?"

"If Icepaw got hurt, it'll be better for us. But if Toadpaw got hurt...it's our fault he's out there," Nightpaw replied to her, feeling sick to his belly.

The minutes dragged on by as the night seemed to grow longer. Their ears seemed sharper than usual while they watched an alligator creep around the tree and into the pool behind the tree. Nightpaw's ears seemed to be picking up every sigh of the wind, every cracking twig. What was going on? And where were the others?

At last, a great crunching noise announced Badgerstripe's return and the two apprentices leaped down from their tree; they saw that Icepaw, Toadpaw, and Marmaduke were with him. The large black cat looked very angry, for Icepaw had pounced on Toadpaw as a joke and Toadpaw sent the sparks into the air as he panicked. Icepaw was going to pounce again if Badgerstripe hadn't come and cuffed him on the ears.

"Thanks to the ruckus you were making, that somethin' might've gotten away! Show some sense for once!" Badgerstripe snarled at the British Shorthair, who glared defiantly at him. "You know what? We're changin' groups right now! Toadpaw, you can come along with me and Fawnpaw. And Nightpaw, you can go with Marmaduke and this smartass mouse-brain!"

When Nightpaw was going to protest that he would rather get eaten alive by a griffin than team up with Icepaw, Badgerstripe whispered into his ear, "Sorry, buddy, but you're less likely to get scared by him. Plus, we gotta get 'er done."

So Nightpaw set off into the heart of the swamp with Icepaw and Marmaduke. They padded for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the dark swamp, until the pathway became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick. But Nightpaw thought the blood seemed to be getting thicker.

"See all this stuff that we have to take for detention?" Icepaw complained loudly to Nightpaw. "If my father hears about this..."

But Nightpaw, deciding to get on his nerves, teased him, "If I didn't know any better, I bet you're scared!"

Icepaw turned to him and snarled, "I'm not scared!"

Without retorting, the Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix turned away from him and followed Marmaduke through the bushes. Icepaw followed him, now sounding silent and not speaking a word about anything.

Something silvery made Nightpaw stop and look around the area. There were splashes on the roots of a pine tree, as though the poor animal had been thrashing around in pain close by. The black cat could see a clearing ahead through the knotted branches of an ancient oak.

"Look..." he murmured, holding out his foreleg to stop Icepaw. Something white was gleaming on the ground, so they inched closer.

It was the unicorn all right and it was dead. Nightpaw had never seen anything so beautiful and so sad. Its long willowy legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.

Nightpaw and Icepaw had just taken one step toward it when a crunch made them freeze where they stood. A shrub on the border of the clearing quivered...and then, out of the shadows, a dark figure stalked across the ground like some demon. Nightpaw, Icepaw and Marmaduke stood there transfixed. The dark figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, ripped out a piece of flesh, and began to drink its blood.

"MMMRRROOOWWWRRR!"

Icepaw let out a loud and terrible screech of horror and hared away, and so did Marmaduke. The dark figure raised its head and looked straight at Nightpaw; unicorn blood was dribbling down its jaws. It got to its paws and ran swiftly toward the black cat; he couldn't move because of fear.

Then a pain that he had never felt before pierced his head; it was as though his scar was on fire. Half blinded, he staggered backward with a growl of pain. But before the figure laid a paw on him, he heard hooves behind him, galloping, and something jumped clean over Nightpaw while charging at the figure. The pain in Nightpaw's head was so bad he fell to his side; it took just a minute or two to pass.

When he looked up, the figure was gone. Another wild horse was standing over him, not Ajax or Basil; this one looked younger; he had a white tail, a white mane, and a palomino body. He had amazingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires, and blue eyes were very unusual for a horse.

"Nightpaw Potter. Are you all right?" the horse whinnied, nudging Nightpaw to his paws.

"Yes, thank you. But what was that?"

The stallion didn't answer. He looked with awareness at Nightpaw, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out on the black tom's forehead.

The horse tossed his sleek head back to level his mane. "You should return to Badgerstripe. The swamp is not safe at this time, especially for you. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way. My name is Calix, by the way," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Nightpaw could climb onto his back.

There was a sudden sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Ajax and Basil had just come bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty. When Basil took one look at Nightpaw on Calix's back, he began snorting with anger.

"Calix!" the black horse thundered. "What on earth are you doing? You have a cat on your back! Have you no shame at all? Are you just a common donkey?"

"Do you not realize who this is?" Calix replied calmly yet sorrowfully. "This is Nightpaw Potter. The quicker that he leaves this swamp, the better for him."

Basil snorted with anger again. "What secrets have you been telling this cat? Remember, Calix, we horses have sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"

Ajax just pawed the ground uneasily with his hoof. "I'm sure Calix thought he was acting for the best," he said in his depressing mournful voice.

"For the best!" Basil snapped as he kicked his back legs in irritation. "What is that to do with us? We wild horses are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like mules after stray felines in our swamp!"

Calix suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that Nightpaw sunk his claws into his mane to stay on. He bellowed at Basil, "Did you not see this unicorn? Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not told you that secret? I am against whatever is lurking in this forest, Basil! And yes, with cats alongside me if I must."

And the palomino horse whisked around from his fellow herd members; with Nightpaw still holding on as best he could, they plunged off into the trees. That left Ajax and Basil staring after them with shock.

Nightpaw had no clue what was going on. "So why's Basil angry? What was that thing you saved me from, anyway?"

But Calix slowed to a trot, and warned Nightpaw to keep his head bowed in case of low-hanging branches, but he did not answer his question. They made their way through the trees in silence for so long that Nightpaw thought that Calix didn't want to speak to him anymore. They were passing through a mainly thick patch of trees, however, when the wild horse suddenly stopped at a pool of water. He took one drink from the small pool and turned his head around to Nightpaw.

"Mr. Potter, do you know what the blood of a unicorn is used for?"

Nightpaw was startled by this question. "Um...no. We just used the horn and tail hair in Potions."

Calix answered him, "To kill a unicorn is an awful crime. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood will keep you alive, even if you are minutes away from death, but it will be at a horrible price. You have killed something unpolluted and weak to save yourself. You will have nothing but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment your lips touch the blood."

Nightpaw stared at Calix's white mane, which was dappled silver in the moonlight. "But who'd be that desperate? If you're going to be cursed forever, death would be better, wouldn't it?"

"Yes. It is," Calix agreed. "Unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else...something that will bring you back to full strength and power...something that will mean you can be immortal. Do you know what is hidden in the castle at this very moment?"

"The Elixir Stone! The Medicine of Life! But I don't understand who..."

Calix interrupted politely and seriously, "Can you think of anyone who has waited for moons to return to power, who has clung to life and is in anticipation of their chance?"

It was as though an iron claw had suddenly sunk itself into Nightpaw's heart. Over the rustling of the trees, he seemed to hear once more what Badgerstripe told him when they first met: "Some cats say he died. Load of fox-dung there. I'm not sure if he had a lotta bear in him to die."

With realization, Nightpaw meowed, "Do you mean that the being that keeps on trying to get the Stone and trying to drink the unicorn blood...? That was Red Helmet?"

"Nightpaw! Are you okay?"

Fawnpaw was rushing toward them down the path with Badgerstripe puffing along behind her. Toadpaw, Icepaw, and Marmaduke had followed them, the cats' amber-and-gray eyes wide with fear and Marmaduke was whimpering with terror. Fawnpaw had just flung herself onto him and was pressing her fur against Nightpaw's in a way of comforting him.

"I'm fine," Nightpaw mewled as he wriggled away from her, hardly knowing what in the name of StarClan he was saying. "Badgerstripe, the unicorn's dead. It's in that clearing back there."

"But that monster's gone! Where'd it go?" Icepaw squealed.

Badgerstripe gave Icepaw a weird look before padding away to examine the body of the unicorn. Meanwhile, Calix trotted forward to the cats and lowered himself to let Nightpaw get off of his back.

"Nightpaw Potter. This is where I leave you. You are safe now."

Nightpaw leaped off of his back and stared up at the larger animal in front of him. Fawnpaw and Toadpaw stared up at him with shock while Icepaw looked rather defiant.

"Good luck, Nightpaw Potter," Calix whinnied softly. "The planets have been read incorrectly many times before now, even by horses. But I hope this is one of those times."

He turned and galloped back into the depths of the dark swamp, leaving Nightpaw and his pack shivering behind him. Nightpaw decided to wait until they went back to the common room so that he could tell his friends what he just found out.

**...**

Redpaw was already fast asleep in the common room, waiting for them to come back. When Nightpaw shook him roughly to wake him up, his head shot up as he yowled something about AirBall fouls.

"It's a foul!" he yowled.

"Shhh! I gotta tell you something!" Nightpaw hissed.

Redpaw still looked rather disturbed at being waken up. But a few seconds later, he was wide-eyed as Nightpaw began telling him and Fawnpaw about all that had happened in the Forbidden Swamp. Nightpaw couldn't sit down for even one second. He paced up and down in front of the fire and he was still shaking.

"So Brokenfang wants to get the Stone for Red Helmet and he's waiting in the swamp. And all this time, we thought Brokenfang just wanted to get rich..."

"Will you stop saying the name?" Redpaw whimpered in a terrified whisper, as if he thought the gigantic demon bear could hear them. The ginger American Shorthair had been ready to hide his hearing with his front paws.

But Nightpaw wasn't listening. "Calix saved me, but he shouldn't have done so and Basil was so furious; he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is gonna happen. Maybe they might show that Red Helmet's returning. Basil thinks Calix should've left me behind and let Red Helmet kill me. I believe that's written in the stars too."

"Stop saying the name!" Redpaw moaned.

"So now I have to wait until Brokenfang to steal the Stone," Nightpaw went on agitatedly, "then Red Helmet will be able to come and kill me. Well, I suppose that Basil will be happy."

Fawnpaw looked very frightened, but the Angora mix had a word of comfort for him. Nightpaw was happy that he had her as a member of the Golden Trio now.

"Look Nightpaw. Do you know who You-Know-Who is scared of?"

When he shook his head (not remembering) she sighed and mewed, "Silverstar, duh! Everyone says he's the only one he was ever afraid of. If our leader is around here, You-Know-Who won't touch you. But who says that the horses are right all the time? It just sounds like fortune-telling to me; Thistleheart says that's a very vague stem of magic."

The sky had finally turned light before they stopped talking. Not wanting to meet up with the other cats since they weren't popular with them at the moment, they went to their nests, feeling exhausted and their throats sore. But the night's surprises weren't over just yet.

When Nightpaw pulled back his sheets and started to burrow deep in his blankets, he found his Invisibility Pelt folded neatly underneath them. He was going to cheer that he got it back, but he noticed something else. There was a note pinned to it:

_Just in case._

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: NOW Nightpaw's already breaking his promise of no snooping...but for a good reason!**

**Holly: There's another thing: Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be returning here in the next chapter. We should go on ahead and go back to the Avatar Cat stories.**

**Katara: But before we go back to our friends, may I say the review thing?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure!**

**Katara: Thanks! We'll be back here sometime later. (To the readers) If anyone reviews this chapter, you'll all receive virtual S'Mores sandwiches or Gummy Sea Prunes! And the Sea Prunes are really good! Plus, here are the names of the horses and what their names mean in Greek:**

**Ajax means "powerful warrior",** **Basil means "king**", **and ****Calix means "very handsome".**

**AvatarCat11, Katara, and Holly: See ya next time!**


	16. In Through The Trapdoor

**AvatarCat11: I might as well update Nightfang and the Elixir Stone and finish it. Besides, I'm already two chapters away from completing this story! Plus, this chapter might be the longest chapter of this FanFic.**

**Harry: (He, Ron, and Hermione come through the door) We've been reading the story while you, Katara, and Holly were chatting before the chapters. And it's getting good so far!**

**Hermione: (Looking at the title of the chapter) Oh dear, our cat forms are going through the trapdoor, right?**

**Ron: (Hugging her tightly) Don't worry, love. We survived this, remember?**

**Hermione: I know. It's just that...I was afraid that you died from the chess game.**

**Ron: It's okay. I'm okay now! Would you like to say the disclaimer?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure she can! And it's good to see you three here again!**

**Hermione: Thanks, AvatarCat! You too!**

**Disclaimer: Everyone should know that, before this story ends, that AvatarCat11 will never own Harry Potter or Warrior Cats. He doesn't want to make a real book out of this; he's writing this for the entertainment of others and he hopes that they enjoy it.**

**Harry: (Patting Hermione on her shoulder) Nice speech.**

**Hermione: (Smiles at him) Thanks!**

**Updating Date: March 16, 2011**

**Everyone in the room: Enjoy!**

**...**

_In Through the Trapdoor_

In the many moons to come, Nightpaw wouldn't remember how he managed to get through his end-of-year tests when he half expected Red Helmet to charge at him through the door at any moment. Yet the days crept by like a snake, and there could be no doubt that Flopsy was still alive and well behind the locked door.

It was boiling hot, especially in the great classroom where they did their written papers. They had been given some special new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti-cheating spell. They had practical tests as well; Shortlegs called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pear break-dance on a desk, Thistleheart watched them turn a cockroach into an emerald (points were given for how pretty the emerald was, but points were taken away if it had scuttling legs), and Brokenfang made them all nervous, breathing down their necks while they remembered their best on how to make a Forgetfulness potion.

Nightpaw did the best he could, trying to ignore the sharp pains in his forehead, which had been bothering him ever since his trip into the Forbidden Swamp. Toadpaw just thought that he had a bad case of test nerves because the he couldn't sleep, but the truth was that Nightpaw kept being woken by his old nightmare, except it got worse than ever because there was a dark figure with glowing red eyes and claws stained with black blood.

Maybe it was because they didn't see what he had seen in the Swamp, or because they didn't have scars burning on their foreheads, but his friends weren't as worried about the Stone as he was. The thought of Red Helmet surely scared them, but he didn't visit them in their dreams, and they were so busy with their studying that they didn't have much time to fuss about what Brokenfang or another cat might be up to.

Their very last exam was History of Warriorism. One hour of answering questions about crazy old cats who had invented self-stirring pots and they would be free, free for a whole wonderful quarter-moon until their exam results returned. When the ghost of Franklin told them all to put down their quills and roll up their scrolls, Nightpaw couldn't help cheering with the others even if they didn't like him anymore.

"Easy as pie," Fawnpaw purred as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I didn't have to learn about the 1657 Werewolf Code of Ways or the uprising of Eelfur the Eager."

The Angora mix liked to go through their exam papers afterward, but Redpaw said that this made him sick, so they padded down to the lake and flopped under a flowering birch tree. The Weasley twins and Quicktongue were tickling the tail of a sperm whale, which was basking in the warm shallows of the bay near the end of the island.

"No more studying," Redpaw sighed joyfully, stretching his legs out on the grass. "Be happy, Nightpaw! We've got a quarter-moon until we find out how bad we've done! Don't worry yet."

But Nightpaw was busy rubbing his forehead. "I wish I knew what this means!" he spat angrily. "My scar keeps hurting; it's happened several times before, but not as often!"

"Just go to Poppyleaf," Fawnpaw suggested.

"I'm not sick," Nightpaw meowed. "I think that it's a warning. It means that danger's coming…"

Ron didn't get worked up, for it was too hot. "Relax! Fawnpaw's right. The Stone is safe as long as Silverstar's here. Anyway, we don't have any that Brokenfang's trying to get his way past Flopsy. He nearly had his leg torn off once and he won't risk that again. And Toadpaw will play AirBall for America before Badgerstripe lets Silverstar down."

Nightpaw nodded, but he couldn't stop feeling that there was something he forgot to do a very important thing. When he tried to explain this, Fawnpaw interrupted, "That's just the tests. I just woke up last night and I was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered that we already did that one."

But Nightpaw was quite sure that he wasn't worried over work, though. He saw a Spotted Owl flutter toward the school across the brilliant blue sky, a note held in its beak. Badgerstripe was the only cat who sent him letters for this year. The gigantic black cat would always be loyal to Silverstar; he would never tell anyone how to get past Flopsy. But...

Nightpaw suddenly jumped to his paws.

"Where're you going?" Redpaw muttered sleepily, raising his head up.

"I've just thought of something," Nightpaw told him, his fur bristling. "We have to go and see Badgerstripe right now."

"But why?" Fawnpaw panted as she was hurrying to keep up.

While Nightpaw leaped down the hill to the cabin, he told his friends, "Don't you think it's weird that Badgerstripe wanted a griffin and a stranger turns up who just had an egg in his bag? How many cats stroll around with griffin eggs even if it's against the Warrior Code? Don't you think that he's lucky so far? Great StarClan, I wish I saw this earlier!"

Redpaw was meowing, "Just tell us what the hell you're meowing about!" but Nightpaw, who was galloping across the grounds toward the Swamp, didn't answer.

Badgerstripe was sitting in a chair outside his house; his fur seemed to be shedding, and he was shucking corn into a large bowl carefully with his claws. "Hey, guys!" he purred, smiling. "Did ya finish yer exams? Do ya have time fer a drink?"

Redpaw nodded eagerly, but Nightpaw cut him off with a flick of his tail. "Sorry, but we don't have the time for one; we're in a hurry. Badgerstripe, we have to ask you something. You know that night that you won Roberta? What did the stranger you played cards with look like?"

"I don't know," the big tom told him indifferently. "He wouldn't take his robe off." He saw the three cats look stunned and raised his brows. "Yeh get a lot of funny fellas in the Moose's Head; that's one of the bars down in the village. He might've been a griffin dealer, you know? I didn't see his face; he just kept his hood up."

Nightpaw sat down next to the bowl of shucked corn. "What did you talk to him about? Did you mention the Forest at all?"

"Maybe," the gamekeeper replied, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yep...he asked what I did, and I told him that I was the gamekeeper here. He asked a bit about the sort of animals that I took care of, so I told him. I said that I'd really love to get a griffin. And then...well, I can't remember too well, because he kept buyin' me drinks..."

He scratched his ear with his hind paws as he went on, "Let's see... Oh yeah, then he said he had the egg and we could play cards fer it if I wanted, but he had ter be sure that I could handle it. He didn't want it ter go ter just any ol' home. I told him that after getting Flopsy, a griffin is easy."

"And was he interested in Flopsy?" Nightpaw asked, trying to keep his voice quiet but feeling shocked.

"Yeah. How many griffins do yeh meet, even around Alaska? So I told him that Flopsy was just a piece of cake if yeh know how to make him heel. You can just play him some music and then he'll fall asleep..."

But he suddenly looked horrified, his amber eyes widening. "I shouldn't have told yeh that!" he blurted out. "I should NOT have told yeh that! I...hey! Where're yeh three kids goin'?"

For the Golden Trio had run off, having gathered all the information they needed. They didn't speak to one another at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and dark after the hot grounds outside.

"We have to see Silverstar," Nightpaw meowed. "Badgerstripe told that stranger about how to get past Flopsy, and it was either Brokenfang or Red Helmet under that robe; it was maybe easy, once that he had him drunk. I hope Silverstar believes us. Calix might back us up if Basil doesn't stop him. So where's Silverstar's office at?"

They looked around the corridors, as if hoping to see a plain sign pointing them in the right direction. They were never told about where Silverstar lived at, and they didn't know anyone who had been sent to see him.

"We'll have to..." Nightpaw began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you three doing inside?" It was Thistleheart, pulling a large pile of books behind her in a wagon.

"We want to see Silverstar," Fawnpaw meowed rather bravely Nightpaw and Redpaw thought that it was very brave of her indeed.

Thistleheart looked as if it was a very suspicious thing to want to do. "Why would you want to go see Silverstar?"

Nightpaw swallowed. _Now what?_

"It's a secret," the black Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix meowed, but now he wished at once that he didn't, because Thistleheart's nostrils flared and her green eyes stared warily at them.

"Silverstar has just left the castle ten minutes ago," she meowed frostily. "He received an urgent owl from the Government of Warriors and he flew off to Juneau straight away."

Nightpaw squeaked, "He left? Now?"

"Yes, Potter, just now. Silverstar is a very great and a very powerful warrior cat. He has so many demands on his paws."

"But this is important."

"Is this something more important than the Government of Warriors, Potter?"

"Listen really quickly," Nightpaw spoke up, risking a scolding, "It's about the Elixir Stone!"

Whatever the deputy of the Forest was expecting, it wasn't that. The wagon she was dragging along quivered as she shook, but she didn't straighten it up. "How do you know that?" she spluttered.

"I think...actually, I know that...someone's going to try to steal the Stone. I have to talk to Silverstar."

The pale tabby she-cat stared at him with a mixture of surprise and doubt. "Silverstar will return here tomorrow," she meowed finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone but no one will steal it; it's too well protected."

"But..."

"No buts, Potter; I know what I'm talking about," she said brusquely. She straightened up her wagon until it was right-side up again. "Now why don't you three apprentices go back outside and enjoy the sunshine?"

But they didn't.

Once he was sure that Thistleheart was out of audible range, Nightpaw whispered, "It's going to be tonight. Brokenfang will be going through that trapdoor tonight. He found out everything that he needs, and now Silverstar's out of the way. He sent that note and I bet the Ministry will be very shocked when Silverstar comes around."

"But..."

Fawnpaw suddenly gasped and the two tomcats wheeled round.

Brokenfang was standing there right behind them. "Good afternoon," he meowed smoothly.

They stared at him.

"I don't think that you three should be inside on a beautiful day like this," he went on with an odd and warped smirk.

"We were just..." Nightpaw began, even though he didn't have any idea what he was going to say.

Brokenfang just flicked his tail at him and warned him, "If I were you, Potter, I'd be a bit more careful. If you keep hanging around like this, cats will think you're up to...ah...something. And LionClan can't lose any more points, can it?"

Nightpaw flushed, not wanting to go through the abuse and the taunts all over again. The Golden Trio turned to go back outside, but the dark brown tabby tom called them back. "I'm warning you, Potter: if you go through any more nighttime strolls, I myself will make sure that you are exiled. Good day to you." He turned around and padded off in the direction of the staffroom.

Once they were out on the stone steps, Nightpaw turned to the others. "Here's what we gotta do," he whispered straight away. "One of us will keep an eye on Brokenfang; just wait outside the staffroom and follow him if he leaves it. Fawnpaw, you're the one for the job."

"Why me?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Redpaw replied. "You can pretend to be waiting for Shortlegs." He put on a high voice and squealed, "'Oh Shortlegs, I'm so worried! I'm afraid that I got question fourteen wrong…'"

"I don't sound like that," the light brown tabby growled, but she agreed to go and watch out for Brokenfang anyways.

"Now we stay outside the third-floor corridor," Nightpaw told Redpaw. "Let's go."

But the bad news was that the part of the plan didn't work. As soon as the two toms reached the door separating Flopsy from the rest of the school, Thistleheart turned up again and this time, the pale tabby she-cat finally lost her temper.

"I have never met two other cats that are more stubborn than two mules tied together!" she spat. "Now stop this gibberish! If I see you two anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from LionClan! Yes, Weasley, I'll take that from my own Clan!"

Not wanting to face her wrath anymore, the two toms went back to the common room. Nightpaw had just said, "At least Fawnpaw's finally on Brokenfang's tail," when the portrait swung open and Fawnpaw came in, looking very guilty.

"I'm so sorry, Nightpaw!" she cried out. "Brokenfang came out of the room and asked me what I was doing, so I told him that I was just waiting for Shortlegs. Then he went off to get him, and I've only just got away! I don't know where he went off to now!"

Nightpaw patted her shoulder with his tail as he told her, "It's not your fault; you did your best. But this is it."

The other two apprentices stared at him. His fur was bristling and his green eyes were glittering like emeralds. "I'm going tonight and I'll try and get to the Elixir Stone first."

"You must have bees in your brain!" Redpaw gasped.

Fawnpaw rasped, "But after what Thistleheart and Brokenfang said, you can't just go! You're gonna get your ass exiled!"

"SO WHAT!" Nightpaw screeched. "Don't you understand at all? If Brokenfang gets the Stone, Red Helmet will return! Didn't you hear what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any more Forest to get exiled from! He'll either crush it or turn it into a demonic school! Losing points doesn't matter anymore! Do you guys think that he'll leave you and your families alone if LionClan wins this year? If I get caught before I get to the Stone, I'll go back to Daniel's place and wait for Red Helmet to find me there! It's only dying a bit later than I would have! I'll never go to the Dark Side! I'll go through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say will stop me! My parents are dead and it's all because of that monster!"

He glared at them.

"You're right, Nightpaw," Fawnpaw mewled in a small voice.

Nightpaw nodded. "I got the Invisibility Pelt back last night. So I'll use it."

Redpaw asked him, "Will it cover all three of us?"

"All three of us?"

"Come on! You think we'd let you go off on your own like this?"

"No way," Fawnpaw spoke up quickly. "You think you'd get to the Stone on your own? I should go look through my books; there might be something useful."

Nightpaw was touched at his friends' support; he had never expected them to care about him like this. "But you guys will get exiled if you're caught."

"I don't think so," the Angora mix replied dismally. "Earlier on, Shortlegs told me secretly that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his test. They won't exile me out after that."

Nightpaw purred thanks to his friends; they were the Golden Trio. They had to save the Elixir Stone and stop Brokenfang.

**...**

After dinner, the Golden Trio sat nervously apart in the common room. No cat bothered them so far; besides, none of the LionClan cats wanted to talk to Nightpaw anymore. However, this was the first night he wasn't upset about it. Fawnpaw was searching through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the charms they were going to break. Nightpaw and Redpaw didn't talk a lot much. Both of them were thinking about what they had to do.

Slowly, the room emptied as the cats drifted off to their nests.

"We better get the Pelt," Redpaw muttered as Quicktongue finally left, stretching and yawning. Nightpaw ran upstairs to their dark dormitory; he pulled out the cloak and then his eyes fell on the flute that Badgerstripe got him for Christmas. He took it to use on Flopsy; he didn't like to sing.

He ran back down to the common room. "We'd better put the Pelt on here and make sure that it covers all three of us; if Oscar sees one paw wandering along on its own..."

All of a sudden, Kermit the frog was leaping around an armchair and sat in front of them, staring up at the three cats. It seemed that he was trying to be like a guard dog.

"Kermit, get away!" Redpaw hissed. "You shouldn't be up at this time of night!"

"Neither should you three."

A small voice from the corner of the room made all three cats jump with alarm and hide the Pelt. Toadpaw had leaped down awkwardly from an armchair and herded Kermit away from the other cats; the bullfrog looked as if he was going to leap for freedom once again.

"What are you three doing?" Toadpaw asked them with fear in his voice and eyes.

"Uh...nothing," Nightpaw meowed lamely.

But Toadpaw saw the guilty looks on the three cats' faces. "Are you sneaking out again?"

Fawnpaw shook her head quickly as she protested, "No we're not, Toadpaw. Just go on back to sleep, okay?"

The Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix looked quickly at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn't afford to throw away any more lost time since Brokenfang might even now be playing Flopsy to sleep.

"But you can't go out!" Toadpaw squealed. "You'll be caught again! You're going to get our Clan into even more trouble!"

"But this is important," Nightpaw retorted.

But the Exotic Shorthair was clearly making himself do something desperate to bring to an end to their mission. He hurried over to the doorway so that he was blocking their way and they would have to fight to get through him.

Nightpaw growled in frustration. If Toadpaw didn't move, Brokenfang would get the Stone for Red Helmet and the Forest would be in terrible danger.

Then Toadpaw hissed with a try at courage, "I won't let you! I'll...I'll fight you!" he added, unsheathing his claws.

"Look, Toadpaw," Redpaw growled, clearly losing patience. "Get away from there and don't be an asshole..."

"Don't call me that!" the brown tabby growled back, his fur bristling hard. "You three shouldn't break any more rules in the school! You told me to stand up for myself against other cats!"

Redpaw sighed, "Yes, but not to US. You don't know what you're doing!"

He took a pawstep forward and tried to grasp his scruff, but Toadpaw lashed back, swiping at his ears with his claws and making him drop him. Kermit, meanwhile, was croaking as he watched the cats squabble.

Toadpaw spat, "Try and stop me! I tripe dare you!"

Nightpaw hissed with anger once again; they were really wasting time while being here. So he turned to Fawnpaw and desperately flicked his tail at Toadpaw as if to tell her to do something. He wasn't good at finishing stuff off...except if it came to AirBall.

So Fawnpaw gave a sigh, padded over to Toadpaw, and meowed to him, "Sorry, buddy." Then, flicking her tail-wand around, she called out, _"Petrificus Totalus!"_

As soon as she flicked her tail at him, Toadpaw's legs suddenly stuck together as if honey had gotten there. His whole body had become erect and stiff solid, he swayed where he was standing, and then he fell down onto his side, as still as a log in the forest. Fawnpaw ran to look him over. The brown tabby's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak; only his amber eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

"Wow," Nightpaw commented. "What'd you do?"

"The Full Body-Bind Curse," Fawnpaw answered him.

Redpaw gave her a weird look. "You're scary. Awesome...but scary."

Then the three cats padded past Toadpaw, saying these three statements: Fawnpaw meowed to him, "Sorry," Nightpaw meowed also, "Sorry," and Redpaw added, "It's for your own good, you know." They finished that sentence by pulling on their Invisibility Pelt and left the room as quietly as a mouse.

**...**

But leaving the brown tabby tom lying motionless on the floor didn't feel like a very good omen to them. In their nervous state, every statue's shadow looked just like Oscar and every far breath of wind sounded like the Joker swooping down on them like a bat. At the foot of the first set of stairs, they spotted Mr. Sniffer skulking around near the top.

"Can we just claw him this once?" Redpaw whispered in Nightpaw's ear, but the black cat shook his head. As they climbed carefully around him, the ferret turned his small sharp eyes on them, but he didn't do anything.

They didn't meet anyone else until they reached the staircase up to the third floor. The Joker was now bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that cats would trip over them. _As if we needed more trouble!_

"Who's there?" he called suddenly as they climbed toward him. He narrowed his impish black eyes as he looked around with evil glee. "I know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you a ghoul, a ghost, or even a wee apprentice beast?"

He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at them even though he couldn't see them at all. "Should call Oscar, I should, if something's a-creeping around invisible."

Before Nightpaw could cringe, he suddenly had a great and clever idea.

So he gathered up all of his breath and rasped in a low rasping whisper, "Joker, the Gory Gaunt has his own reasons for being invisible at night."

The Joker almost fell out of the air in shock, but he caught himself just in time and hovered about a badger-length off the stairs. He meowed greasily, "So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Gaunt. It's my mistake, my mistake...I didn't see you...of course I didn't; you're invisible! Please forgive this old Jokester for his little joke, sir."

"All right then. But I have business here, Joker," Nightpaw rasped. "If I were you, I'd stay away from this place tonight."

"I will, sir; I most certainly will," the Joker meowed very quickly, rising himself up in the air once again. "Hope your business goes well, Sir. I'll not bother you, Sir." And he whizzed away.

Redpaw nudged his friend with his shoulder, purring, "Awesome!"

Nightpaw purred his thanks and the Golden Trio padded away right where the door was. And just a few seconds later, they were there, outside the third-floor corridor...and the dark door was already partly open.

"Well, here you are," Nightpaw told his friend quietly as he pointed to the door with his tail. "Brokenfang already got past Flopsy. I won't need the Pelt anymore right now, so you can turn around and go back if you'd like."

Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all three of the apprentices about what was facing them. Underneath the Pelt, Nightpaw turned to the other two to see what they would say: that they would either leave or go with him.

"No way, buddy! We're the Golden Trio!" Redpaw meowed to him.

"We're in this together. We'll go where you go," Fawnpaw purred.

Feeling reassured about their friendship, Nightpaw turned back around and pushed the door open; as soon as they opened the way to the dragon, the three cats quietly padded inside and closed the door behind them. But as the door creaked, low rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dragon's nostrils sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.

"What's that at its feet?" Fawnpaw whispered.

"Looks like a lyre," Redpaw told her. "I think Brokenfang left it there."

Nightpaw meowed, "Flopsy might wake up the moment you stop playing the instrument. Well, here goes nothing..."

He took out Badgerstripe's flute from the bag, put it to his lips clumsily with his paws, and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the first note, the animal's eyes began to droop. Nightpaw barely drew in a breath. Gradually, Flopsy's growls ceased; it tottered around on its hind legs and fell to its knees. It slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Keep playing it," Redpaw warned his friend as they slipped out of the Pelt and crept toward the trapdoor. They could feel the dragon's hot reeking breath as they approached the three big heads. "I think we can pull the door open," the ginger cat meowed, peering over Flopsy's back. "Wanna go first, Fawnpaw?"

"No!"

Redpaw muttered "Suit yourself," gritted his teeth, and stepped carefully over the dragon's legs, removing one of the front talons from the trapdoor. He bent low to the floor and pulled at the ring of the trapdoor with his jaws, which swung up and open.

"What do you see?" Fawnpaw asked him anxiously.

"Blackness. There's no way to climb down. We'll have to drop down."

Nightpaw, who was still playing the wooden flute, waved at Redpaw with his tail to get his attention and pointed at himself. "You wanna go first? You sure?" the American Shorthair asked him. "I'm not sure how deep it goes. Give the flute to Fawnpaw so that she can keep that thing asleep."

So Nightpaw handed the flute over; in few seconds' moment of silence, the dragon growled and twitched, but the moment Fawnpaw began to play the flute, it fell back into its deep sleep. Then Nightpaw climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor; there wasn't any sign of the bottom. He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by the tips of his front claws.

Then he looked up at Redpaw and told him, "Look, if anything happens to me, don't follow me down. Just go right for the Owlery and send Katara over to Silverstar for help. Got it?"

"Got it."

"I hope I see you in a little bit."

And Nightpaw let go and he fell right for the bottom of the pit. Freezing humid air rushed past him as he fell down, down, down to the bottom and...FLUMP.

With a funny quiet sort of thump, he landed on something soft. He sat up and felt around the area, his green eyes trying to get used to the gloom. It felt as if he was sitting on a plant.

"It's okay, guys!" he yowled up to the light the size of a firefly, which was the unlocked trapdoor. "It's a soft landing! You can jump!"

Redpaw followed him down right away. He landed, sprawled out right next to Nightpaw. "What is this stuff?" were his first words.

Nightpaw shrugged. "Maybe some plant thing. I suppose it can break a fall. Come on down here, Fawnpaw!"

To his slight dismay, the distant music stopped. There was a loud roar coming from the dragon as it shot out a bright blue light, but Fawnpaw had already dodged the attack and leaped down to her friends. She landed on Nightpaw's other side.

"We're probably skylengths under the castle," she meowed.

"It's lucky that this plant's here to help, really," Redpaw told her.

But instead of looking relieved, Fawnpaw looked down and let out a yowl of surprise. "You call this lucky? Look at you two!"

She leapt up to her paws and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle hard because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her tail and legs. As for Nightpaw and Redpaw, their legs and tails were already bound forcefully in long vines without them noticing.

The light brown tabby she-cat had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her throat. Now she watched in horror as the two toms fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Don't move!" the Angora mix ordered them. "I know what this is! It's a Devil's Snare!"

"Oh, I'm happy that we know what it's called! That's a great help!" Redpaw spat sarcastically, leaning back and trying to stop the plant curling tightly around his neck.

"Will you shut the hell up? I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" Fawnpaw snarled, trying her best to pace around the wall.

Nightpaw gasped, while wrestling with it as it curled around his chest, "Hurry up! It's got the squeeze on us!"

Fawnpaw began to pace around quickly and she was muttering to herself as she paced around. "Hmmm...Devil's Snare...Devil's Snare...what did Sproutflower say about it? It loves to live in the dark and the damp."

"So light a fire!" Nightpaw choked as he clawed at a vine that was replaced by another while Redpaw yelped.

"I know, but there's no wood in here!" Fawnpaw cried, thrashing her tail around.

"FOR STARCLAN'S SAKE!" Redpaw screeched loudly. "ARE YOU A WARRIOR OR ARE YOU NOT?"

Fawnpaw suddenly gasped and slid through the vines. Then she whipped out her tail-wand, waved it and muttered something, and sent a jet of the same blue flames she had used on Brokenfang at the plant. In a matter of seconds, the two tomcats felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth and roared in pain. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull themselves free.

Redpaw needed help because he was panicking, but they got him out in one piece.

"It's a good thing that you pay attention in Herbology," Nightpaw praised her as he climbed up the railing and joined her by the wall, panting hard.

"Yeah," Redpaw meowed sarcastically. "And it's a good thing that Nightpaw didn't lose his head in a crisis." He mimicked her voice again, "'There's no wood in here!' Pff...honestly."

Nightpaw warded off an argument by pointing his forepaw down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

All that the three cats could hear apart from their pawsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Nightpaw reminded himself of the bank called Liverpool. With a horrid jerk to the heart, he remembered the griffins that were said to guard vaults in the warriors' bank. If they met a griffin, a fully-grown one...Roberta had been a nightmare already...

Suddenly, Redpaw stopped, swiveled his ears around, and asked the others, "Do you guys hear something?"

Nightpaw stopped, listened, and sniffed the air for any signs. There was a quite soft rushing and clinking sound that seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Is it a ghost?"

"I don't know. Sounds like wings to me."

"There's light ahead. I see something moving."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a luminously moonlit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling around all around the room. There was a heavy wooden door on the opposite side of the large chamber.

"Will they attack us if we cross?" Redpaw asked.

Nightpaw just replied, "They might. Even though they don't look very vicious, I suppose if they all swooped down at once. Well, there's no other choice. I'll run."

The black cat took a deep breath, twitched his tail hard, and ran with all of his might across the room. He expected to feel sharp beaks and talons tearing at his flesh at any second, but nothing happened.

He reached the door untouched and he pulled the handle with his jaws, but it was locked. The other two cats followed him to the other side without a scratch on them. They tugged and heaved at the door with their jaws also, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Fawnpaw tried to use her Alohomora charm.

"Now what?" Redpaw meowed.

Fawnpaw looked around and muttered, "I don't believe that those birds are here just for a sense of decoration."

They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering...wait a minute! _Glittering?_

"Those aren't birds!" Nightpaw mewed suddenly. "Those are keys! They're winged keys! Look carefully. That means..." Then he looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the flock of keys. "Yes! Look! There are three sets of wings here! We have to catch that key to the door!"

"But there are a lot of them!"

Redpaw examined the lock on the door. "Hmmm...we're looking for a big, old-fashioned one; it's probably silver like the handle."

They each seized a set of wings and kicked off into the air, flapping away into the midst of the cloud of keys, which started flying crazily around the room. They grabbed and snatched at them, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly away that it was almost impossible to catch one.

Nightpaw, however, wasn't the youngest Seeker in a hundred years for nothing. He had a skill for spotting things that other cats couldn't. After a minute's soaring about throughout the crowd of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a crooked wing, as if it was caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole.

"It's that one!" he yowled to the others. "That big one...with bright blue wings! The feathers are all crumpled on one side."

Immediately, Redpaw went zooming in the direction that Nightpaw was pointing his paw to, but he crashed into the ceiling and nearly slipped out of his set of wings. Nightpaw sighed, but now wasn't the time for any corrections.

"We've got to corner it!" the black tom called, not taking his green eyes off of the key with the damaged wing. "Redpaw, come at it from above! Fawnpaw, stay below and stop it from going down! I'll try and catch it! Right, NOW!"

Redpaw dived, Fawnpaw flew upward, the key dodged them both, and Nightpaw flew after it; it sped toward the wall, but Nightpaw leaned forward and with a nasty crunching noise, he pinned it against the stone with one front paw. The two other cats' cheers and praises echoed around the high chamber.

They landed quickly, and Nightpaw ran to the door, the key struggling in his jaws. He rammed it into the lock and turned...and it worked. The moment the lock clicked open, the key flew off again, looking very scruffy now that it was caught twice. The three cats closed the door straight away and the keys that were chasing them crashed into the door, but not breaking it down.

"You guys ready?" Nightpaw asked the other two apprentices, panting as he tried to regain his breath. They nodded and he pushed the door open while padding inside the next chamber.

The next chamber was so dark they didn't see anything at all. But when they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an amazing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chess pieces, which were bigger than they and carved from black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. The Golden Trio shivered slightly, for the towering white chessmen had no faces.

"What do we do?" Nightpaw rasped with wonder.

"It's obvious!" Redpaw told him. "We'll play our way across the room." For behind the white pieces, they could see another door.

"How?" Fawnpaw mewled nervously.

Redpaw cleared his throat and made this announcement: "We'll play this game ourselves."

The ginger tomcat padded up to a black knight and put his front paw out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life, the horse pawed the ground, and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Redpaw.

"Do we have to join you to get across?" The black knight nodded. Redpaw turned to the other two. "This needs thinking about...I think we can take the place of three of the black pieces…"

The two other members of the Golden Trio stayed quiet, watching their friend think. Finally he said, "No offense, but both of you aren't that good at chess..."

"None taken," both cats meowed.

"Good. Anyways, here's what you gotta do," Redpaw started meowing out orders to the other members of the Golden Trio. " Nightpaw, you take over the place of the bishop; Fawnpaw, you can go ahead and take over the place of that bishop. And as for me, I'll be taking the place of the knight."

The black chess pieces seemed to have been listening to the ginger tom because as soon as they heard these words, a knight, a bishop, and a castle turned their backs onto the white pieces and walked off the board. That was just leaving three empty squares that Nightpaw, Redpaw, and Fawnpaw took.

Redpaw looked around the chess board and meowed, "All right, here's one of the rules: the white pieces always go first. Yes, look..." A white pawn had moved forward two squares.

Soon enough, the American Shorthair started to direct the black pieces as if they were true real-life warriors in a real battle. They moved without a sound wherever he sent them. Nightpaw's ears were twitching with worry; what if they lost? What if Brokenfang got to the Stone before they did?

"Nightpaw, move across four squares to the right."

The cats' first real shock came when their other knight was taken. The white queen quickly and ruthlessly smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board. The side area was where he laid quite still as a real stone, facedown. Redpaw looked shocked, but he shook his fur quickly and turned to Fawnpaw.

"Sorry, but I had to do that. That leaves you free to take that bishop, Fawnpaw. Go on."

Every time one of their pieces was lost, the white pieces acted ruthlessly and showed no mercy. Soon enough, there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Twice, Redpaw only just noticed in time that Nightpaw and Redpaw were in danger. He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.

"We're nearly there," the American Shorthair meowed muttered suddenly. "Let me think...let me think..."

The white queen turned her blank face toward him. Redpaw stared right back at her blank face and murmured, "Yes... It's the only way."

But Nightpaw knew what his friend and fellow LionClan apprentice was going to do and he couldn't let that happen. He looked quickly between the two opponents and yowled, "Redpaw, NO!"

"What's going on?" Fawnpaw asked him nervously.

"He's gonna sacrifice himself!"

Fawnpaw let out a wail of terror. "No, Redpaw! You can't do this! There's gotta be another way!"

Redpaw turned to face her from his spot. He quickly snapped to her, "But that's chess! You have to make any necessary sacrifices! I go ahead and make my move while that queen knocks me out of the way! Nightpaw, that's gonna leave you free to checkmate the king!"

"But..."

"Look, do you want to stop Brokenfang or not?"

"Redpaw..."

"If you don't hustle, he'll get the Stone!" To Nightpaw, he meowed, "And we're gonna make sure that you alone get to save the Stone! Not me, not Fawnpaw, but you!"

There were no other options left.

"Are you ready?" Redpaw called, his face nervous yet determined. "Here I go. Don't hang around here once you've won."

So he padded forward, and the white queen pounced at him like a cat onto a mouse. She struck the ginger cat hard across the head with her stone claw, and he crashed to the floor, knocked out with a bloody spot on his head. Fawnpaw screeched in terror, but she stayed on her spot while the white queen dragged Redpaw to one side. But now, there was no one else to stay in the way to get to the king.

When Fawnpaw had been on the edge to move forward, Nightpaw had turned to her and mewed, "No, don't move! We still play." Shaking, yet steeling up his courage, Nightpaw moved three spaces to the left right in front of the king. "Checkmate!"

The white king took off his crown and threw it at Nightpaw's front feet; they had won this game. The white chess pieces parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last anxious look back at Redpaw, Nightpaw and Fawnpaw ran through the door and up the next corridor.

**...**

"What if he's...?"

"He'll be okay," Nightpaw meowed, but he was trying to convince himself as well. "What do you think what's next?"

"We went through Sproutflower's Devil's Snare; we went through Shortlegs' keys; Thistleheart Transfigured the chess pieces to make them alive. So that leaves Quailflight's spell and that leaves Brokenfang's spell too."

They had just reached another door when Nightpaw asked her, "You okay?"

Fawnpaw nodded and murmured, "Yeah." So Nightpaw pushed it open and they padded inside.

A disgusting stench filled their nostrils, making both of them hold up their forepaws over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a woolly mammoth that was even bigger than the one they battled a few moons ago, but it was out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad we don't fight that one," Nightpaw whispered as they padded cautiously over one of its massive hairy legs without waking it up. "Hurry up. I can't breathe."

He pushed open the next door quietly, both of them hardly daring to look at what came next...but there was nothing very frightening in here. Instead, there was just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"That's Brokenfang's spell then," Nightpaw confirmed. "What do we do?"

They stepped over the threshold, and immediately, a fire sprang up behind them in the entrance way. It wasn't just an ordinary fire either; it was deep purple. At the same instant, black flames dark as his own fur shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Fawnpaw suddenly called, seizing a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry looked over her shoulder to read it as she pinned the note to the floor with her forepaws:

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

_Two of us will help you, which ever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line._

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

_Second, different are those who stand at either end,_

_But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

The light brown tabby she-cat let out a great big sigh and Nightpaw, astonished, saw that she was actually smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing right about now.

"Wow," Fawnpaw was meowing, her bushy fur bristling with delight. "This isn't magic; it's just logic! It's a puzzle. A lot of the greatest warriors haven't got a small amount of logic, so they'd be stuck in here forever."

"But are _we_?"

Fawnpaw just rolled her amber eyes in amusement. "Hell no. Everything we need to have is here on this here paper. There are seven bottles: three are poisonous, two are wine, one will get us all right through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple fire."

Nightpaw asked her, "But how do we know which one is which?"

"Just give me a minute, okay?"

The bushy-furred Angora mix read the paper several more times. Then she paced up and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing her tail at them. At last, she gave a jig and ran up to the bottles once again.

"Yep! I got it," she cheered. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire, toward the Elixir Stone."

Nightpaw looked carefully at the tiny bottle. "But the bad news is that there's only enough there for one of us. That's hardly one swallow."

They looked at each other. "So which bottle will get you back through the purple flames?"

Fawnpaw pointed her muzzle towards a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"Okay, you drink that," Nightpaw told her. "Listen: get out of here and get Redpaw from the other room. Grab the wings from the flying-key room and they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Flopsy. Go straight to the Owlery and send Katara over to Silverstar; we need him. I might hold Brokenfang off for a while, but I'm not a match for him, really."

"But Nightpaw...what if You-Know-Who is with him?"

Nightpaw gave a sigh and pointed his forepaw to his scar, touching it carefully and tracing his claw over it without making it bleed "Well, I was lucky once. Maybe I'll get lucky again."

Fawnpaw's amber eyes sparkled with tears and she suddenly dashed at Nightpaw, throwing her weight against his and covering him in maternal-like licks. Nightpaw just stood there, unable to speak; he never knew that both of his friends had that much faith in him: pure faith.

He gave a startled meow and, as if he was telling her to let go, she broke away from him, looking into his green eyes.

"Nightpaw...you're the best warrior cat I know."

"But I'm not as good as you," Nightpaw told her modestly, feeling embarrassed.

Fawnpaw gave him a warm smile as she purred, "But there's more than books and cleverness. You're the one who knows the best about bravery. Be careful and give it your best."

Nightpaw nodded to her and purred, "Thank you." He looked at the bottle, took it and set it down at her paws, and told her, "So you go ahead and drink this. Are you sure that it's the right one?"

"Yep! One hundred percent!" Fawnpaw meowed to her friend. Then she opened it up and slipped her tongue inside, scooping up the potion and gulping it down. She shuddered quickly and it made the black cat concerned for his friend.

"Is it poisonous?"

Fawnpaw shook her head. "No. It feels like ice."

Nightpaw nodded to her. "Good. Now hurry."

"Got it. And good luck!" As soon as his friend meowed that, she turned around away from him and leaped through the fire in a single leap.

As soon as she was gone, Nightpaw took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle in his jaws. He turned to face the black flames and set the bottle onto the floor.

"Here I go," he meowed as he slipped his tongue inside there and he took the potion onto his tongue. Then he managed to gulp down the little bottle in one gulp.

It was without a doubt as if ice was flooding all around his body. He pushed the bottle away from him and leaped forward; through the fire, he braced himself, saw the jet black flames licking his body, but he couldn't feel them. For a split second, he couldn't see anything but dark fire...then he was on the other side, in the last chamber at last.

But as he padded down the stairs to face the next task, he saw a shocking thing: there was already some animal there with its back turned to him...but it wasn't Brokenfang. It wasn't even Red Helmet.

It was Quailflight.

_To be continued..._

**...**

**AvatarCat11: I'm glad that this story is nearly complete until the sequel! Plus, I hope that I can erase the extra two chapters at the beginning that included the allegiances and prologue. But I'll put the prologue as a separate story.**

**Harry: That's when I face Quirrell, right?**

**Hermione: Yeah. We were so worried when we saw you unconscious! But it's a good thing that Dumbledore rescued you!**

**Ron: Yeah. You're a miracle when it comes to fighting bad guys...you always get back up to your feet!**

**AvatarCat11: Well spoken, Ron. Would you like to say the review thing?**

**Ron: Sure! (To the readers) It's sad that no one had reviewed this story except for snowwhistle, so he and DaniPotterCedric'sGirl will be getting the next prize in the next review. But anyone who reviews now will get virtual ice cream of their own choice!**

**Harry: Oh, and they'll get sugar frosted cookies with the colors of Saint Patrick's Day, which is tomorrow!**

**Everyone in the room: See ya next time! And Happy early Saint Patrick's Day!**


	17. The Cat With Two Faces

**AvatarCat11: Yep! This is the final chapter for Nightfang and the Elixir Stone! After this, I'll be working on the second book of the Nightfang series: Nightfang and the Cavern of Secrets! Plus, I have another three day weekend! There's just two moons for me to finish school altogether!**

**Ron: Looks like you've been working hard, mate! Keep that up and you'll be working hard like Hermione here!**

**Hermione: (Hits his arm in a mock hurt way) Ron!**

**Ron: I didn't mean that, love. Sorry.**

**Hermione: (Smiles at him) I know.**

**Harry: So this is when my cat form fight Quirrel's cat form, right? Anyways, I'd like to say the disclaimer this time. May I, AvatarCat?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure!**

**Harry: Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: AvatarCat11 doesn't own my books or Warrior Cats. My friends and I are owned by J.K. Rowling and Warriors is owned by Erin Hunter.**

**Updating Date: March 18, 2011**

**AvatarCat11: Good job, Harry! And I hope everyone enjoys the last chapter of Nightfang and the Elixir Stone!**

**Everyone in the room: Enjoy!**

**...**

_The Cat With Two Faces_

"You!"

Quailflight turned to face him; the look on his face startled Nightpaw. Instead of the twitching and scared look he always had in his eyes, there was instead an icy sneer spread across his face.

"Yes, it's me," the European Shorthair meowed, and his voice was stuttering either; his voice was now cold and sharp. "I was wondering when I'd meet you here tonight, Potter."

Nightpaw stared at him with alarm. "But I thought that..."

But Quailflight glared at him and gave a sharp cold laugh instead of the nervous giggles that he always made around him. "Brokenfang? Oh yes, he does really seem to be like that, hmmm? And it's so useful to have him swoop all around you like a large ugly bat. Besides, who else would suspect..." he put on his now-fake shaking voice "...p-p-poor st-st-stuttering Q-Q-Quailflight?" Then he finished it off with another cold sharp laugh.

Nightpaw couldn't believe his own eyes and his ears; he had hoped that Brokenfang had just threatened him to do what he said and act for him. But he didn't look afraid and try to be brave like Toadpaw was doing; instead, he was sneering all on his own. He looked like a cat that could control his own feelings.

"But...Brokenfang tried to kill me at the AirBall match!"

"Oh no! Of course he didn't! It was _I _who tried to kill you. Your pal Miss Granger by chance knocked me over as she went over to set fire to Brokenfang's tail at that AirBall match. She broke my eye contact with you. If I had a few more seconds, I would've got you thrown off of those wings. I would've managed to do it before then if Brokenfang hadn't been saving you by muttering a counter curse."

Nightpaw gaped at him. "Brokenfang tried to...save me?"

Quailflight nodded coldly. "Yes. Why do you think he wanted to be the umpire at your next match? He was just making sure that I didn't try my tricks again. It's funny, really; he shouldn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with that pesky Silverstar watching. All the other mentors thought that Brokenfang wanted to stop LionClan from winning; besides, he did make himself unpopular. And it's a waste of time, when after all that, I will kill you tonight."

The brown-&-white tom flicked his tail around and two giant statues of wolves pinned Nightpaw to the ground. The black cat tried to struggle, but it was to no avail.

"You're too nosy to live, Potter," Quailflight spat. "I saw you scurrying around the castle on Halloween night like a rat. For all I knew, you would've seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

Nightpaw gasped at what he had just realized. "You? You let that mammoth in the castle?"

Quailflight purred, "Indeed. I have a special gift for those ancient beasts. You and your ginger-furred pal maybe saw what I did to the one in the chamber back there. Alas, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Brokenfang, that cat that already suspected me, went at once to the third floor to chase me away. Not only did my mammoth fail to crush you, but that three-headed dragon didn't bite Brokenfang's leg off right. Now, wait silently, Potter. I have to inspect this interesting mirror."

It was only then that Nightpaw realized what was standing behind Quailflight. It was the Mirror of Reflections. He never knew that he would see this mirror once again after Silverstar warned him to be prepared. This was what the silver tabby Persian warned him about.

"The key to finding the Stone is this mirror," Quailflight meowed, touching his paws all around the frame. "Trust Silverstar to come up with a trick like this. But he's away at Juneau; I'll be far away by the time he returns."

But all that Nightpaw could think about was keeping this evil cat talking to and try to stop him from concentrating on the mirror. He had an idea; he could just talk and stall his time.

"But I saw you and Brokenfang in the swamp," he exclaimed.

Quailflight padded around the mirror to look at the back, absentmindedly replying to Nightpaw. "Ah, yes. He was onto me by that time, and he was trying to find out how far I got. He suspected me from the very beginning. He even tried to frighten me...as though he could when I had Red Helmet right by my side..."

The European Shorthair came back out from behind the mirror and stared enthusiastically into it. "I see the Stone...and I'm presenting it to my master. But where is it?"

Nightpaw struggled some more against the statues pinning him down, but they didn't give way. But he had to keep Quailflight from giving his whole attention to the mirror. So he made another remark, but even this took him by surprise because he wanted to find out about this.

"But Brokenfang hates me."

"Hmmm? Oh yes. Of course he does," Quailflight purred casually. "He was here at the Forest with your father when you were their age. Didn't you know that? They really despised each other and they were bitter enemies. But he never wanted to make you dead."

Nightpaw went on, "But I heard you a few days ago, sniveling in a classroom. I thought that Brokenfang was threatening you."

For the first time for a while, a shudder of dread flitted across the brown-&-white tom's face. "My master is a powerful and great warrior while I am weak and feeble. It is from time to time hard to obey his commands."

"You mean he was there with you?" Nightpaw gasped. _Red Helmet was here at the Forest the entire time?_

"Yes. He is with me wherever I go." Quailflight purred quietly. "I had met him when I traveled around the world. Back then, I was just a foolish young cat, full of preposterous ideas about good and evil. Red Helmet had showed me about how wrong I was. There is no good and evil; there is only power, and those too weak to seek it..."

He paused to spit evilly before going on, "Since then, I have served him very loyally, though I have let him down many times. He had to be very hard on me and punish me severely." The evil cat shuddered all of a sudden. "He does not forgive mistakes straightforwardly. When I had failed to steal the stone from Liverpool, he was very disappointed. He punished me harshly and he decided that he would watch me closer..."

Quailflight's voice trailed away. With a sick feeling in his belly, Nightpaw remembered his first trip to Dragon Alley; how could he be so stupid? He himself had seen Quailflight there that very day, exchanged nods with him in the Dripping Pot. And he even smiled at him in an encouraging way! Now he felt as if he really was going to be sick because of that.

Quailflight cursed under his breath. "Shit! I don't understand! Is the Elixir Stone inside this very mirror? Should I break it apart?"

Nightpaw's mind began to race. _What I want more than anything else in the world right now is to get to the Stone before Quailflight does. So if I look in this mirror, I'll be able to see myself finding it, which means that I'll see where it's concealed! But how can I look without him seeing what I'm up to?_

He tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quailflight noticing him, but the large statues were too tight; after he tried to get away, the statues just tightened their grip onto his body. But Quailflight just ignored him; he was still muttering to himself.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Master, help me, please!"

And to Nightpaw's horror, a deep scary voice answered him, and the voice seemed to come from Quailflight himself.

"Use the apprentice...use him..."

Quailflight nodded quickly and turned around to face Nightpaw. He flicked his tail once again and the giant statues of the wolves got off of the black cat, who gasped for breath. Nightpaw, feeling as if one of his ribs had been cracked, rose slowly to his paws and licked some blood away from his muzzle.

Then he told him, "You. Come here."

Nightpaw didn't need to be told twice, because he steadied himself onto his paws and limped over to the brown-&-white tomcat. Quailflight flicked his tail sharply to the ground, inviting him to sit, so Nightpaw had no choice but to sit down.

"Now..." Quailflight breathed as if his dream was going to come true. "Look into that mirror and tell me what you can see."

But all that Nightpaw could think of was to try and stay out of trouble with this cat. _I have to lie to him, _he thought to himself urgently. _I have to lie about what I see in the mirror. _Meanwhile, Quailflight was breathing into his ear, and Nightpaw recoiled a little at the stench coming from his turban.

Nightpaw closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again.

Now he was looking at his reflection, shocked and scared at first. But just in a few seconds, the reflection smiled at him; it placed its front paw into its bag and pulled out a stone that was as red as blood. It winked and put the Stone back in its bag...and as it did so, Nightpaw felt something heavy drop into his real bag around his neck. Somehow...incredibly..._he got the Stone!_

"Well, what do you see?" Quailflight barked edgily.

Nightpaw screwed up his courage and made up an invented vision. "I see myself dipping my head towards Silverstar. I...I see myself winning the Clan trophy for LionClan."

Quailflight spat and cursed again and told Nightpaw sharply to get out of the way. But while the black-furred apprentice moved aside, he felt the tip of the Elixir Stone brush against his neck while it was in the bag. Should he dare make a run for it?

But right as he had been backing away from the mirror, a deep scary voice spoke up, despite the fact that Quailflight wasn't moving his lips.

"He lies..."

"Potter, come back here and tell me the truth!" Quailflight roared so angrily that Nightpaw no longer remembered the timid cat that he was...or rather, what he pretended to be. "What did you just see? TELL ME!"

The deep scary voice spoke again. "I want to speak to him...face-to-face..."

"Master, no! You're not strong enough!"

"I have enough strength for this..."

Nightpaw felt as if a snake was constricting him right to the spot. He couldn't move any of his muscles. Frightened, he watched as Quailflight reached up with one of his forepaws and began unwrapping his turban. _What's going on?_

The turban fell away; the brown-&-white tom's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot so that the back of his head was facing the apprentice.

Nightpaw almost screeched with terror, but he couldn't make a sound. There should have been a back to Quailflight's head, but instead, there was a face; it was the most horrifying face that the young black cat had ever seen. It was coal black with glaring glowing red eyes with a big muzzle sticking out like a rock from a mountain and there were no pupils in its eyes.

"Ah...Nightpaw Potter," the face rasped.

"Red...Red Helmet?" Nightpaw gasped. He tried to take a step backward, but his legs wouldn't move in the face of fright.

The scary face laughed evilly and wheezed, "Yes...have you seen what I have become? I have become mere shadow and vapor. I have a form only when I share another's body. However, there were always those enthusiastic to let me come into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me over the past moons or so. You saw my faithful servant drinking it for me in the swamp. Once I have the Medicine of Life, I will create a body of my own. Give me the Stone in your bag."

_So he knew!_ The feeling suddenly surged back into Nightpaw's legs. He stumbled backward, but Quailflight flicked his tail around one more time. This time, red and orange flames surrounded the chamber, the tips of the fire licking the air for a new victim.

"Don't be a fool," the face snarled. "It is much better to save your own life and join me than to meet the same fate as your mother and father had met. Lilypelt and Darkfire had died begging me for mercy..."

"YOU LIAR!" Nightpaw spat suddenly.

Quailflight was padding backward right at him so that Red Helmet could still see him properly. The evil bear's face was now sneering. "Ah...how touching..." it growled. "I admire the virtues of courage. Yes, child, your parents were brave. I killed Darkfire first, and he put up quite a daring fight. But your mother needn't have died; she was just trying to protect you. Now...give me the Stone. You don't want her to have died in vain, now do you?"

Nightpaw suddenly looked back at the mirror to see his parents smiling sadly back at him while they and his other family members were swallowed up by flames. Their deaths now made him angry; he had to stop Red Helmet.

"NEVER!"

Nightpaw leaped toward the flame door (even though flames surrounded it), but Red Helmet roared, "SEIZE HIM!"

In the next second, Nightpaw felt Quailflight headbutt his shoulder so that he stumbled and fell to the ground. But as he snarled up at him in defiance, he felt Quailflight's jaws close on his throat. At once, a sharp pain seared across Nightpaw's scar; his head felt as though it was about to split in two like an egg. He let out a screech, struggling with all his might, as his blood began to trickle down his neck and to the ground. And to his surprise, Quailflight let go of him.

The burning pain in his head lessened; he looked around wildly to see where Quailflight had gone off to, but he saw him hunched in pain, looking at his jaws in the mirror. His jaws were blistering before his eyes and his teeth were turning to dust and crumbling out of his jaws.

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" Red Helmet roared again, and Quailflight lunged, knocking Nightpaw down onto his back and landing on top of him, both forepaws sinking their claws into the black cat's neck. Nightpaw's scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quailflight cry in agony.

"Master! I cannot hold him! My jaws! My paws!"

And the European Shorthair, though pinning Nightpaw to the ground with his back paws, freed his neck, reared onto his hind legs, and stared at his own palms in horror. Nightpaw could see that they looked burned, raw and red and shiny; then they started to turn to dust before his eyes.

"Then kill him, you fool, and finish the task!" Red Helmet bellowed.

Quailflight raised his tail-wand to perform a deadly curse, but Nightpaw instinctively reached up and swiped his claws at the tail wand while sinking his fangs into the brown-&-white warrior's throat.

"Mrowr!"

Quailflight rolled off him, his throat blistering, and then Nightpaw knew: Quailflight couldn't touch his fur, not without suffering horrifying pain. His only chance was to keep hold of the older warrior, keep him in enough pain to stop him from killing him.

Nightpaw leaped to his feet, tackled him to the floor above the ground, and pinned him down to the ground. Quailflight screamed and tried to throw Nightpaw off of his throat; the pain in the Maine Coon mix's head was building, but he couldn't see. He could only hear Quailflight's awful screeches and Red Helmet's roars of, "KILL HIM!" But there were other voices that were in his own head, yowling, "Nightpaw!"

He felt Quailflight's disintegrating paw wrench from his grasp while he pulled his neck free, leaving Nightpaw to feel the taste of blood in his mouth. He knew that all was now lost, and he fell into blackness, down...down...down.

**...**

Something bright blue was glinting just above him. He thought that it was a strangely colored firefly, so he tried to catch it. But the bad news was that his front legs were too heavy.

Then he blinked; it wasn't a blue firefly at all. It was a pair of bright blue eyes staring down at him with pride. That was strange. He blinked again and the smiling flat face of Silverstar swam into view right above him.

"Good afternoon, Nightpaw," he purred

Nightpaw stared up at him. Then he remembered: "Sir! The Elixir Stone! It was Quailflight all along! He got the Elixir Stone! We gotta..."

Silverstar just meowed calmly, "Relax yourself, my son. You are a little bit behind the times. Quailflight does not have the Stone in his clutches."

"Then who does? Sir..."

"Please calm yourself down, Nightpaw or Poppyleaf will have to ask me to leave. I wish to tell you something."

Nightpaw calmed down, swallowed, and looked around him. He realized that he must be in the medicine cat den. He was curled up in a nest with moss used for blankets and bracken used for poking away intruders. And next to him was a table piled high with what looked like half the candy from a candy shop.

Silverstar looked at his face of surprise and purred happily. "Ah...there are tokens from your friends and your admirers. What happened down in the hollow between you and Quailflight is a secret, so the whole school naturally knows. I believe your friends Berrytail and Cherrynose Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a table leg. They thought it would amuse you, but Poppyleaf thought it was quite unsafe, so she removed it."

Nightpaw felt his brain ache a little when Silverstar talked about his friend and admirers. Last time he checked, every cat except for Redpaw and Fawnpaw hated him now. But this was maybe something new again, since many cats had heard and had respect for him once again; yet another worrying thing came to him. "How long have I been here?"

"You have been here for three sunrises. Redpaw Weasley and Fawnpaw Granger will be more than ever relieved that you have been revived. They were tremendously worried about you."

"But the Stone..."

Silverstar sighed good-naturedly. "Hmmm...I see that you are not to be distracted. Very well. I shall speak about the Stone. Quailflight did not manage to take it from you because I had arrived just in time to prevent that. Although you did great on your own, I must admit."

Nightpaw gaped at him with shock and relief. "You got there? You got Katara just in time?"

"Yes," the silver tabby leader told him. "We must have crossed paths in midair. As soon as I reached Juneau, it became very clear to me that the place I should be was the one I that had just left. I had arrived just in time to pull Quailflight off of you."

"So it was you?"

Silverstar nodded. "I feared that I was too late."

Nightpaw dipped his head gratefully to his leader. "You nearly were and I couldn't keep him off the Stone for that much longer..."

"Not the Stone, my son, but you. The attempt involved had nearly ended your young life. For one horrifying moment there, I was afraid that it was indeed too late. But as for the Stone, it has been destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Nightpaw asked him blankly. "But what about Flamestone?"

Silverstar gave a jolly laugh and looked down into Nightpaw's green eyes with his bright blue ones. "Oh, so you know about Flamestone Flamel already? Looks like you did the right research all along! Well, Flamestone and I have had a little talk, and we both agreed that it's for the best."

The young black cat gulped. "But does that mean that he and his mate will die?"

"They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die."

Silverstar purred as he smiled at the look of amazement on Nightpaw's face. "To a cat as young as you, I'm sure it seems absurd, but to Flamestone and Petalstem, it's like sleeping after a very long day. After all, to the ordered mind, death is the next great adventure. You know, the Elixir Stone wasn't really a wonderful thing. As much cash and life as you could want! That's the two things that cats would choose above all. However, cats do have a skill of choosing exactly those things that are bad for them."

Nightpaw just laid there in his nest, lost for words. Silverstar hummed a little and smiled at the ceiling while his tail twitched.

"Silverstar?" Nightpaw mewed after a few moments of silence. "I've been thinking. Even if the Elixir Stone is gone, Red...sorry..."

"Don't be sorry at all. Just call him Red Helmet, Nightpaw. Always use the correct name for their things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."

Nightpaw dipped his head to his leader again and meowed, "Well, is Red Helmet going to try other ways of coming back? I mean, is he gone?"

Silverstar replied, "Defeated, perhaps, but not gone. He is still out there somewhere. Maybe he is looking for another body to possess; not being really alive, he is maybe immortal. He had left Quailflight to die; he shows as no mercy to his cohorts as he does to his enemies. But while you have delayed his return to power, it will simply take a cat that is prepared to fight what seems to be a losing battle next time. If he is delayed again all over, he will never return to power."

The Maine Coon/British Shorthair mix nodded, but he stopped fast. This was because it made his head hurt. Then he said, "Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me. I want to know some things I want to know the truth about."

"So you wish to know the truth." The Persian cat sighed. "It is a beautiful and horrifying thing, and should hence be treated with great concern. However, I will answer your questions if not I have a very good reason not to, in which case I ask for you to forgive me. I will not lie."

"Well...Red Helmet told me that he killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why does he want to kill me in the first place?"

The leader of the Forest sighed very deeply this time. "Sadly, I cannot tell you the first thing you ask me right now. But you will know one day; put it from your mind for now, Nightpaw. When you are older, and I know that you will hate to hear this, you will know."

Despite that, Nightpaw admitted that this was fair. He knew that it would be no good to argue. "But why couldn't Quailflight touch me?"

"Good question. He couldn't touch you because your mother died to protect you. If there is one thing Red Helmet cannot understand, it is love. He didn't understand that love as powerful as your mother's for you could leave its own mark. Not a scar, not a visible sign, to have been loved so deeply, even though the ones that loved us are gone, will give us some shelter evermore. It is in your very pelt and heart. Quailflight, a cat filled with hate and greed and desire while sharing his soul with Red Helmet, couldn't touch you as a result. It was anguish to touch a cat marked by something so divine."

Silverstar turned around and he was now very interested in a bluebird sitting out on the ledge outside the den, which gave Nightpaw time to dry his eyes on the moss. Hearing about his mother's sacrifice made him start to cry and he didn't want his leader to see. Despite that, he knew that he wouldn't have minded at all.

When he had found his voice again, Nightpaw choked, "What about the Invisibility Pelt? Do you know who sent it to me?"

The leader of the Forest purred, "Ah...your father happened to have left it in my ownership, and I thought that you would like it." Silverstar's blue eyes twinkled. "It does do some useful things... He used it mostly for sneaking around to the kitchens to steal some fresh-kill when he was your age."

Then Nightpaw decided to set one thing straight: "And there's something else."

"Yes?"

"Quailflight said that Brokenfang hates me because he hated my father. Is it true?"

Silverstar tilted his head to one side. "Hmmm...well, they did rather loathe each other, not unlike yourself and Icepaw Malfoy. And then, your father did something that Brokenfang could never forget nor forgive."

"What?"

"He saved his life."

Nightpaw gasped. _"What?"_

Silverstar nodded in an absentminded way. "It's funny about the way a cat's mind works, isn't it? Brokenfang couldn't put up with being in your father's debt. I believe that he worked so hard to defend you this year because he felt that it would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to cursing your father's legacy in peace..."

Nightpaw tried his best to understand all of this but it made his head pound a little. So he managed to make it stop. "But there's one more question I'd like to ask."

"Ask away."

"How did I manage get the Stone out of that mirror?"

Silverstar purred. "Ah, I'm glad that you asked me that. It was one of my more bright ideas, and between you and me, it's saying something. You see, only a cat that wanted to find the Stone, to find it and not use it, would get it; or else, they'd see themselves making gold or drinking a cup of Medicine of Life. Even my brain can surprise me sometimes...

"Now, that enough questions. May I suggest that you make a start on these sweets? Hmmm! It seems that someone got you Every Flavor Skittles! I was unlucky in my young days to eat a mucus flavored one, and I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them ever since. But I believe that I'll be safe with a nice chocolate, don't you?" He smiled and put the golden-brown bean into his mouth, chewing calmly. Then he choked and rasped, "Alas! It's vomit!"

Nightpaw purred.

**...**

Poppyleaf, the tortoiseshell medicine cat of the Forest was a kind maternal she-cat, but she could be very strict in healing her patients.

"Just five minutes! Please?" Nightpaw pleaded with her.

Poppyleaf shook her head. "I'm afraid not."

Nightpaw protested, "But you let Silverstar come in!"

"But that was the leader, and that's quite different. You need your rest."

"I am resting! Look!" Nightpaw protested again as he demonstrated. "See? I'm lying down and everything! Please, Poppyleaf?"

The medicine cat sighed. "Oh, very well," she meowed finally. "But it's for five minutes only." And she let the two other members of the Golden Trio in, with Katara riding on Fawnpaw's back.

"Nightpaw!"

Fawnpaw looked as if she was ready to lick him all over again, but Nightpaw was happy that she held herself in time since his head was still very sore. "I'm fine. How're you, Redpaw?"

Redpaw shrugged. "I'm good."

"And you, Fawnpaw?"

Fawnpaw purred. "Never better." But her voice grew serious as she went on, "We thought that you were going to die! Silverstar was so worried about you!"

"Yeah, everyone's talking about it," Redpaw added. "What really happened down there?"

It was one of those unusual occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors. So Nightpaw told them everything: Quailflight, the mirror, the Stone, and Red Helmet. Redpaw, Fawnpaw, and Katara were a very good audience to him; they gasped in all the right places, and when Nightpaw told them what was under the turban, Fawnpaw yowled very loudly. Redpaw and Katara flinched at the name; even the name had an effect on owls. It was an effect that was called" going yeep."

Finally, Redpaw meowed, "So the Elixir Stone's destroyed? Flamestone's gonna die?"

"Yeah. But Silverstar thinks that...'to the ordered mind, death is the next great adventure.'"

"I always said he was crazier than a fox in a fit," Redpaw meowed, but he looked impressed at how crazy his hero was.

Nightpaw purred with affection for his friends. "So what happened to you two?"

"Well, I got back in one piece," Fawnpaw began. "I managed to wake Redpaw up, and that took a while. We were running up to the Owlery to speak with Silverstar when we met up with him in the entrance hall; he already knew! He just meowed, 'Nightpaw's gone to find him, hasn't he?' and he dashed off to the third floor."

Redpaw added, "Do you think he meant for you to know all of this? You know, sending you your dad's Pelt and everything?"

Fawnpaw suddenly growled, "Well, if he did...he could've killed you, Nightpaw! That was awful!"

"Not really," Nightpaw reassured her kindly. "Silverstar's one hell of a mystery cat. I think he wanted to give me a chance. I believe he knows more or less about everything that goes on around this place, you know? I think he had a good idea about what we were going to try, but instead of stopping us, he taught us enough knowledge to help us. I don't think it was a mishap that he let me find out how the mirror worked. Maybe he thought I had the right to face Red Helmet if I could..."

"Yep, Silverstar's crazy, all right," Redpaw purred proudly. "You gotta come to the end-of-year banquet tomorrow. The points are all in and ViperClan won, obviously. Oh, and you missed the last AirBall match; we were beaten by RavenClan without you! But the food will still be good."

Nightpaw was a little upset at the loss, but he put it behind him. At that exact moment, Poppyleaf padded right over to his nest and looked him over.

"You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT," she meowed determinedly, soothingly nudging Fawnpaw and Redpaw away from Nightpaw so that he could get some rest.

**...**

After a good night's sleep, Nightpaw felt nearly back to normal. Already, he had asked the Forest medicine cat (as she straightened his many candy boxes) if he could go to the feast. He already felt better, he told her, and he wanted to join his friends.

"Well...Silverstar did say that you are to be allowed to go," she meowed awkwardly, as if in her opinion Silverstar didn't understand how hazardous banquets could be. "But first, you have another visitor."

Nightpaw purred. "That's good! Who is it?"

Soon enough, Badgerstripe crept through the door as he spoke. As usual, when he was indoors, the big black cat looked too big to be allowed in an ordinary place suited for cats or Twolegs. He sat down next to Nightpaw, took one look at him, and began crying very loudly.

"This...is...all...my...fault!" he bawled, tears trickling from his dark amber eyes to the floor. "I told the evil guy about how to get past Flopsy! It was the only thing that he didn't know, and I told him! Yeh could've died down there, and all fer a griffin egg! I won't drink anymore! I think I oughta be thrown out and made ter live like a kittypet among the Twolegs!"

"Badgerstripe!" Nightpaw spoke up, shocked to see Badgerstripe shaking with sorrow and guilt, great tears still leaking from his dark amber eyes. "Look, he would've found out somehow, and this is Red Helmet we're talking about! He would've found out even if you hadn't told him."

Badgerstripe continued sobbing, "But you could've DIED! And please don't say that name!"

Nightpaw rolled his eyes while shouting Red Helmet's name once again, and Badgerstripe was so shocked that he stopped crying. "I've met him already and I'm calling him by his name. Please, Badgerstripe, cheer up! We saved the Stone and it's gone; he can't use it now. Here...have a Chocolate Toad. I've got a lot already."

When Nightpaw gave him the treat, Badgerstripe smiled weakly at him, wiped his nose on the back of his paw, and meowed, "Thanks, little buddy. Oh, that reminds me. I've got ya a present."

"Is it a rock cake?" Nightpaw asked him apprehensively, but the gamekeeper just gave a weak chortle.

Badgerstripe purred in a loving sarcastic way, "Yeah, I got it for ya right here. Nope, Silverstar had given me the day off yesterday to fix it for yeh. Of course, he should've sent me away from here instead...anyway, I got yeh this for yeh."

It seemed to be a fine-looking leather-covered book. Nightpaw opened it curiously. Inside, it was full of moving warrior photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father. Lilypelt and Darkfire. The cats whose lives they surrendered to save his.

"I've sent owls off to all of your parents' old school friends, askin' fer photos. They knew that you didn' have any. Do you like it?"

His eyes filling with happy tears, Nightpaw looked up at him and couldn't speak, but the large black cat understood. Nightpaw didn't like it; he loved this book.

...

Nightpaw padded down to the end-of-year banquet alone that moonhigh. He had been held up by Poppyleaf fussing about him, insisting on giving him one last health check, so the Great Hall was already full. It was decked out in ViperClan colors of green and silver to celebrate ViperClan's winning the Clan trophy for the seventh year in a row. A huge streamer showing the ViperClan snake covered the wall behind the High Table.

When Nightpaw walked in, there was a sudden silence, and then everybody had started talking noisily at once. He slipped into a seat between Redpaw and Fawnpaw at the Gryffindor table and tried to ignore the fact that cats were standing up to look at him. They weren't looking hostile anymore; instead, they looked interested.

Fortunately, Silverstar had arrived moments later. The jabber died away from the hall.

"Another year has come and gone!" the silver tabby Persian meowed gladly. "And I have to tell you with an old cat's winded small talk before we dig into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! With any luck, your heads are all a little fuller than they were; now you have the whole time of greenleaf to get them nice and empty before next year starts...

"Now, as I understand, the Clan trophy needs presentations, and the points stand thus: In fourth place is LionClan with three hundred and twelve points; in third place is BadgerClan with three hundred and fifty-two points; in second place is RavenClan with four hundred and twenty-six points; and finally, ViperClan with four hundred and seventy-two."

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the ViperClan table. With dread, Nightpaw turned away so that he couldn't see Icepaw Malfoy banging his goblet on the table with his forepaw. It was such a stomach-turning sight; he was afraid that he'd get a scolding from his Clan.

Silverstar purred, "Well done, ViperClan, well done. However! Recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. The ViperClan cats gave each other worried looks.

Silverstar cleared his throat loudly and meowed at full volume, "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes... First, to Mr. Redpaw Weasley..."

Redpaw's jaws gaped wide as he stared up at his leader; he looked just like a goldfish gasping for water when on land.

"...for the most well-played game of chess that the Forest has seen in many moons, I hereby award LionClan...fifty points."

Many LionClan cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to tremble with joy. Nightpaw could hear Sandthorn telling the other prefects, "That's my youngest brother, I tell you! He managed to get past Thistleheart's giant chess set!"

At last, there was silence again.

Silverstar went on, "Second, to Miss Fawnpaw Granger...for the use of cool common sense in the face of flames, I award LionClan...fifty points."

Fawnpaw lowered her gaze to her paws and began purring; Nightpaw was afraid that she had burst into tears. But he could hear her purring even from the cheering of the other cats.

LionClan cats up and down the table were very excited as they cheered some more; now they were a hundred points up.

"And third, to Mr. Nightpaw Potter..." the leader of the Forest announced as he stared deep into Nightpaw's green eyes with his blue eyes. The room went deadly quiet. "...for use of pure spirit and amazing heroism, I award LionClan...sixty points."

The hullabaloo was now so deafening that a hibernation squirrel could hear them. The cats that could add up while yowling themselves hoarse knew that LionClan had four hundred and seventy-two points now...exactly the same as ViperClan. They were tied for the Clan trophy...if only Silverstar gave Nightpaw just one more point.

"But we're tied to ViperClan now!" Fawnpaw hissed happily to Nightpaw, her amber eyes filled with joy. Redpaw cheered alongside her.

Silverstar raised one paw and the room slowly but surely fell silent.

"There are many kinds of courage in all shapes and sizes," Silverstar purred, smiling. "It takes a great deal of courageousness to stand up to our enemies...and even as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to...Mr. Toadpaw Longbottom."

A cat that would be standing outside the Great Hall would have thought some sort of explosion had taken place, so loud was the noise that erupted from the LionClan table. Nightpaw and the other members of the Golden Trio stood up to howl and cheer as Toadpaw, his eyes wide with shock, disappeared under a pile of cats hugging him.

The flat-faced brown tabby tomcat had never won as much as a point for LionClan before. Nightpaw, who was still cheering, nudged Redpaw in the shoulder and pointed at Icepaw, who couldn't have looked more shocked and appalled if he had just been constricted by a snake.

Silverstar called over the storm of applause, for even RavenClan cats and BadgerClan cats were celebrating the defeat of ViperClan, "And that means that we need a little change of decoration."

He waved his tail around and, in an instant, the emerald hangings became ruby and the silver became gold. The huge ViperClan snake statue vanished and a towering LionClan lion statue took its place. Brokenfang was embracing Thistleheart with an awful required smile. He caught Nightpaw's eye and the black cat knew at once that the dark tabby's feelings toward him didn't changed one bit. This didn't worry him; instead, it seemed like life would be back to normal in the next year, or as normal as it ever was at the Forest.

"LionClan has won the Clan trophy at the Forest, School of Warriorism this year!" Silverstar announced with pride in his voice. This was enough to make all the Clans (minus ViperClan) cheer for joy and praise the four cats who helped LionClan win.

This was Nightpaw's best evening ever, better than winning at the AirBall match, better than Christmas, and even better than beating up woolly mammoths. He would never forget this night.

**...**

Nightpaw almost forgot that the examination results were still to come, but they did come. To their great surprise, both he and Redpaw managed to pass with good marks; Fawnpaw, for sure, had the best grades of the first year apprentices. Even Toadpaw passed, his good Herbology mark making up for his awful Potions one. They hoped that Monkeypaw, who was as stupid as he was cruel, would be exiled, but he passed too.

It was a shame, but Redpaw said before that you couldn't have everything in life.

And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their suitcases were packed, Kermit the frog was found lurking in a corner of the toilets, and notes were handed out to all of the cats, reminding them to not to use any magic over the holidays "I always hope they'll forget to give us these," Berrytail mewled sadly.

Badgerstripe was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the sea away from the island; they were boarding the Forest Express; talking and laughing as the landscape became cleaner with less mountains, and eating Every Flavor Skittles as they sped past many Twolegplaces; They pulled off their warrior capes and put on their collars once again, and they pulled into platform seven and a half at King's Cross Station.

It took a while for all of the cats to get off of the platform. A shriveled old pale gray tom was up by the ticket barrier, letting them pass through the gate in twos and threes so that they didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the kittypets or Twolegs.

"Can you two come stay with us this greenleaf?" Redpaw asked him. "I'll send an owl over to you."

"Thanks. And we'd love to come over," Nightpaw meowed. "I need something to look forward to." Cats and Twolegs crowded them as they moved forward toward the entryway back to the Twoleg world.

Some of them called: "Bye, Nightpaw!" or "See ya, Potter!"

Redpaw nudged him, smiling. "Still famous, eh?"

"Yeah, But I'm not famous where I'm going, I promise you that," Nightpaw meowed.

The Golden Trio passed through the gateway together and Nightpaw heard a young voice call out. "There he is, Mom! There he is! Look!"

It was Leafkit, Redpaw's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Redpaw. Standing next to a Twoleg female with long ginger head fur, Leafkit was begging her mother to look at where she was pointing.

"It's Nightpaw Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see him!"

"It's rude to point, Leafkit, and please be quiet." Redpaw's mother smiled down at them. "Did you have a busy year, dear?" she meowed.

Nightpaw nodded and dipped his head in a gracious way to her. "Yes, ma'am. And thank you for the fudge and the cat sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

The plump ginger tabby queen purred. "Oh, it was no problem, dear."

"Are you ready yet?"

It was Uncle Bristle, still large, beefy, and looking furious at the nerve of Nightpaw, carrying Katara inside a cage in a station full of ordinary cats and Twolegs. Behind him stood Aunt Tulip and Tubby, looking terrified at the very sight of Nightpaw. Daniel was with them, but after looking over at Samantha, Redpaw's owner, he stepped over and began introducing himself in Twoleg languages. It seemed that those two were getting along now.

"So you must be Nightpaw's family!" Redpaw's mother purred.

Uncle Bristle cleared his throat and grunted, "In a matter of speaking, yes we are. Now hurry up, boy. We haven't got all day." At that, he padded away while Daniel exchanged a piece of paper with Samantha before following his cats.

Before leaping into Daniel's arms, Nightpaw hung back for a last word with his best friends.

"See you this greenleaf, you two." At that, he began touching noses with Redpaw and Fawnpaw; he knew that it was only for a short while, but he would miss them very much.

"Have a good holiday," Fawnpaw meowed, looking uncertainly after Uncle Bristle, looking very shocked that anyone could be so obnoxious. "So looks like you're going home, right?"

"No. Not really," Nightpaw purred, and they were surprised at the smile that was spreading over his Maine Coon-like face. "_They_ don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'll have a lot of fun this greenleaf. See ya next time!"

With a meow of joy, Nightpaw waved goodbye to his friends as he leaped into Daniel's arms, and owner and cat left the station together back to the Twoleg world.

One journey was over...but another was soon to begin.

_The End_

**...**

**AvatarCat11: There! I finally managed to finish Nightfang and the Elixir Stone!**

**Harry: I'm glad that's done with! May I say the summary for Nightfang and the Cavern of Secrets?**

**AvatarCat11: Sure!**

**Harry: Thanks!**

**Summary: After a horrible greenleaf with the Dursley cats, Nightpaw Potter wants to desperately get back to the Forest, School of Warriorism. But when he's ready to leave, a small strange animal named Bobby had come to warn him that disaster will strike if he goes back to the Forest.**

**And disaster does strike. In Nightpaw's second year, he has to come face-to-face with a self-centered cat named Gloryhound, a depressed ghost named Carping Turtleneck, and the unwanted attention towards Redpaw's little sister, Leafpaw.**

**But the real danger comes when cats are starting to turn to stone, and someone is behind this. Can it be Icepaw Malfoy, who is a more menacing opponent than ever? Can it be Badgerstripe Hagrid, whose past is finally revealed? Or is it the cat that everyone least expects...**_**Nightpaw himself?**_

**Ron: Now I'll say the review thing. Anyone who has reviewed so far will receive all of the gifts that they had already gotten in this FanFic.**

**Hermione: And I'll list all the authors that should be given good mentions for their reviews:**

_**DaniPotterCedric'sGirl, Jokegirl, ultima-owner, snowwhistle, holditagainstme, AvenJackal, gamer4**_

**Everyone in the room: SEE YA NEXT TIME!**


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